Of Dragons and Wizards
by Empire-of-the-East
Summary: During a Gay Pride parade in good old NYC, two young males end up in quite the situation all caused by both a coincidence, and a siren. However, it proves to be what happens afterwards that changes their lives forever, since, well, it's not like the public was going to forget something that turned out to be quite highly televised. Jake could never have guesse where things would go.
1. Chapter 1

Pride is something that most people honestly wish they had, whether it be pride in their heritage, pride in their country, pride in themselves, or even pride in their family history. While the majority of people on this planet named earth have this pride, there are many others that lack in it one aspect or more. This rings no more true in any aspect of pride in life than in the aspect that is pride in one's sexuality. For every single person that is prideful in their sexual orientation, there seems to be one that isn't, and this goes for both sides of the equation regardless of sexual orientation itself. However, for sexual orientation, there is something special across the world that occurs in celebration of those who are prideful of this aspect of themselves - as well as for the pride itself. These celebrations are known as 'Pride Parades' and as stated, occur on a global scale. Of all the world's cities, the city of New York City, New York, USA is one of the more frequent locations for pride parades within the United States of America alongside North America as a whole. For some, perhaps they have become one of the facts of life, and this was no more true than in the month of June, the official month for 'LGBT' Pride itself.

This is of course, where our story begins. Right in the middle of both Pride Month, and the latest of numerous New York City pride parades. All around the streets, or at least one street, of New York were rainbow flags, bright coloured floats and people of all shapes, sizes, builds and outfits parading around as well as many other aspects of celebrations. For once the New York streets were filled with happiness rather than that of road rage or cursing, perhaps only even seen during a celebration such as this.

However, not everything on the street which had the pleasure of hosting this parade was actually going through the feelings of happiness or celebration, for there was one soul on the street which was going through what was effectively the polar opposite of exactly those feelings. That soul was none other than Jacob Luke Long, often just called 'Jake'. Young Jake was a boy in his teens who was of Chinese descent, shown by his skin tone alongside his black eyes, with his most prominent feature being his hair that was short and black, though with green highlights that gave off a 'flame' appearance in the way they were presented. His clothing was almost always that of blue jean shorts, a red and yellow jacket over a white t-shirt, and simple blue-grey sneakers. His young face, however, had what looked to be an uninterested frown upon it, which was much less traditional than that of his wardrobe. It also, of course, went along with what came out of his mouth:

"Man this is just so whack!", Jake whined as he and his two best friends - Trixie Carter and Arthur 'Spud' Spudinski - walked along the sidewalk down the exact same street as the pride parade, "Why the heck we gotta be over here at this pride parade anyway?!"

"Jakey, don't be so disrespectful!", Trixie Carter, one of Jake's friends and a bit of a sassy - but thin - African American girl quickly spoke back within her aforementioned sass-filled style of speech, "These people ain't done nothin' to you!"

"Yeah well I said it before, I'm not gay!", Jake professed, "And I wasn't bein' disrespectful, I just don't see why these parades are such a big deal for everybody."

"Well I'm not gay either but I don't question it like that", Trixie replied, "Besides, from what I heard, they're just celebrating them bein' accepted nowadays compared to how they used to be treated! That's somethin' to be happy about, ain't it?"

"Yeah, I guess so. That still doesn't answer my question about why we're here though."

"Didn't Fu Dog say something about some kinda siren or whatever?", the other friend, Spud - a boy who was of caucasian ancestry as well as taller than Jake, usually wearing baggy cargo pants and blue shorts, with his brown hair and torque hats in a very much typical 'chilled skater' style of fashion. His words were more important than what he was wearing though, as they easily managed to 'jog' the memories of both Jake and Trixie:

"Oh yeah!", Jake exclaimed in response, "Now I remember! Hey, where'd Fu go anyway?"

"I think he went over there", Spud said, pointing to a direction in front of the three, only to find nothing but the various attendees of the parade, "Oh...maybe that way?", and then Spud pointed in the opposite direction, only for them to see the same sight, "Uhh...I...I think we might have lost him."

"Uh, yeah", Trixie remarked, "What was your first clue?"

"Awwww man!", Jake complained, "Where'd he go off to now? Don't tell me he bailed on us!"

"I think I saw him near the hot dog stand", Spud answered, but then he put a hand onto his chin as he tried to remember more specifically, "Or was it by the poster? The float?"

"What float?", Jake questioned, "There's more than one to go around over here!"

"True", and with that Spud went back to thinking for a short moment before finally coming to a - admittedly somewhat obvious - conclusion, "Yeah, I think he's lost then."

"Darn it!", Jake responded, "Where'd he go off to this time! He better not have bailed on me again! AFTER what happened last time!"

"Relax Jakey", Trixie assured her friend, "Knowing him, I think I know where he went."

"Oh yeah? Where?"

Little did they know, at the exact time that they began searching through the crowds of people for the magical talking dog known as 'Fu Dog', that someone else was also going through a similar yet also very different situation on the same street as they and the parade were occurring on. This other person was none other than New York's British foreign exchange student wizard boy known by the name of Nigel Thrall.

Nigel was a boy who was roughly the same age as Jake, though was of British ancestry and such had a caucasian appearance to his body, and also was notably taller to boost. His skin was whiter, his hair was pure red and worn down compared to Jake's, and he usually wore black skinny jeans, a black t-shirt, a white collared shirt kept open, and basic fancy expensive shoes. Nigel himself also didn't see much into the point in these parades, why celebrate something that was already accepted? He understood that people wanted to show how happy they were, but couldn't they just do it themselves? Why drag everyone else into it? Why drag...himself into it?

"Honestly, Nigel, you could have just stayed home..." he said to himself, glancing around. "At least, if someone hadn't have stolen your wand."

Nigel couldn't believe how careless he was. He was a sorcerer, for goodness sake. He should have been more careful. Nigel sighed in irritation, he also had to remember he was now in New York City. Crimes happen everywhere, be it a robbery or worse. Nigel frowned as he passed under a Pride Flag that was just hanging low enough to caress his head.

Nigel jumped, startled by the sudden connect. He turned back to gaze up at the flag, waving proudly before him. It had touched him as if it had to get his attention. Nigel shook his head, trying to clear it. There was something far more important that a parade and some flag.

"I need to find my wand and get back home," Nigel told himself, determined to find his wand and let that be the end of his day. The journey that would lead to him finding his wand reached a strong lead, when he found a small, but familiar individual:

A certain dog, a gray chinese shar pei dog to be precise. Nigel could tell he recognized this individual from somewhere:

"Oh, isn't that Long's dog...Foo something?" Nigel wonder, heading right for the dog. Nigel hadn't ever really spoken to Fu Dog, but he had seen him with Jake a few times. If the talking dog was here, didn't that mean Jake Long was somewhere with him? "Good afternoon, um, Foo wasn't it?"; Nigel said, trying to be as polite as he could.

Fu Dog himself,was caught off guard when he turned around and saw the wizard boy standing there and talking to him:

"Woah!, he exclaimed;

"Oh, I didn't mean to startle you", Nigel replied swiftly, standing just a few feet away from Fu Dog himself:

"Oh, it's just you, the wizard boy! For a moment there I thought, you know what nevermind...what are you doin' here anyway?"

"Frankly", Nigel spoke back, "I could ask the same to you. Shouldn't you be, I don't know, by Jake's side?"

"Well I would be, but, I got kinda lost in the crowd."

"Oh really? And how exactly did that happen?"

"Frankly", Nigel spoke back, "I could ask the same to you. Shouldn't you be, I don't know, by Jake's side?"

"Well I would be, but, I got kinda lost in the crowd."

"Oh really? And how exactly did that happen?"

Fu Dog sighed, walking over to Nigel, "Walk with me, I gotta find Jake anyway."

The two walked on the sidewalk, no one paying any mind to "a boy and his dog." Nigel only glanced forward to make sure he didn't bump into anyone.

"So here's what's going down; there's been a sighting of a siren somewhere around this area of New York, now normally no one would worry about a siren during something like this," he said, hinting to the parade. "However, she's a known criminal in the magical world, been reported to actually "steal" men away into the Black Magic Market," he said, Nigel frowned at the sound of this news.

"Sounds quite serious."

"You have no idea," Fu said, glancing over his shoulder and all around. "The only problem we have is the question of why; why here?"

"How am I supposed to know that?"

"Good point, but luckily she can't do any real damage on her own. Unless she finds some magic charm or steals a wand to use on someone's sexuality or her own appearance," Fu Dog laughs at this. "Not like she could get a hold of your wand, right? You must keep that thing under lock and key 24/7, am I right?"

Nigel's face pales.

"You're not looking so good...and judging by how your face reminds me of those Jake makes when he's screwed up...gonna guess you don't have good news."

"No, I don't," Nigel sighed, looking down at Fu before admitting his wand had been stolen just the night before, and he didn't know how or by whom, but now he had a good guess.

Fu did not take this lightly.

"How in the heck does a wizard lose his wand?!"

"I did not lose it, it was stolen! And how, I don't know," Nigel argued back before sighing. He thought back on what may have happened.

"I was practicing some new spell by the docks the other night and if it was this siren, she must have seen me and followed me home. My mother leaves the window up to air out the apartment, so she must have come in through the window and hid somewhere until everyone was asleep," Nigel said, thinking about that night before his wand went missing. It was unnerving to think someone hid in his apartment, like crazed lunatic.

"That's the only explanation I can think of, anyway", he finished.

Fu Dog sighed, "If that siren has a wand, we have got to find her before someone gets hurt or worse!"

Nigel nodded, "I suppose we better find Long, then. Let him know the scenario as taken a unwanted left turn."

"Oh yeah...this whole time I forgot to...oh boy...this is going to be tougher than I thought."

"Well, how many fellows here could have black and green hair?"

"More than you think."

Nigel glanced over the crowd of people, seeing just how many men and women had black and green hair...it was an ocean of colors. Nigel sighed, the only thing that stood out were the flags, waving proudly in the air.

"Maybe we could call him? Does he still carry his cellphone?"

"I think he does, but..."

"But?"

"I don't have an phone on me," Fu Dog said. "Got no pockets, what about you?" Fu asked, Nigel frowned.

"My wand...it acts like a phone but, as you know, I don't have that either," he said, Fu sighed.

"Best thing we can do is look for Jake or try yelling for him."

"Well, if he 'Dragon Ups' it should be easy enough to find him at least."

"That is true, but he would only really have a reason to do that if he sees the siren, or if everyone starts running and screaming."

"How long do you think that will take?"

"Not much longer, if we're luckily, that siren can't hide forever. This place is covered with men who aren't too bad looking!"

Nigel made a face as he glanced down at Fu Dog who realized too late what he said.

"I meant that in a...nevermind."

Nigel shook his head, wanting to forget what Fu just said, he took his changes with searching for Jake in the crowd. It was tempting to call out, but with how loud the area was, he doubt Jake would even hear him.

'I just have to get my wand back,' Nigel thought, rubbing his arm as he and Fu Dog got to a street corner. While they now had to struggle with both trying to find Jake and working together as an unlikely team, Jake, Spud and Trixie were on what was practically the other side of the parade looking for Fu at this point.

"Ya gotta hand it to who ever planned this, the whole street looks amazing!" Trixie said, looking at all the flags and smiling faces. The only thing really missing was the confetti flying through the air.

Jake just shrugged, "We need to find Fu and quickly."

"Maybe he could be at a hot dog stand?" Spud said, Trixie placed her hand on her hips.

"Really, Spud?"

The boy shrugged, "It's what I would do. Hot dogs are good."

"Well at least it's an idea.", Jake responded, "I guess."

Trixie didn't say anymore as they waited for a clearly to cross the street, unaware that the dog in question was coming up on the other side with a red haired wizard in tow. Not that they saw them through the large crowd. Nigel glanced around, the people just seemed to increase!

"There sure is more people now, I'm guessing the parade is about to start?" he asked, turning his gaze straight ahead. Fu Dog nodded, listening to the many voices in the air.

"Most likely, oh boy, finding Jake just might be impossible if it does."

Across the street, Jake looked straight ahead, wanting to ignore everything that was happening around him. He had a weird feeling in his stomach, like, that kind of feeling something was about to happen, something...big, maybe?

'Wonder if the Siren is near by?' he thought, Trixie and Spud both talked about the parade before the crowd made a small gap...just big enough for Jake to gaze across the street, to see a certain red head.

"Oh god", was all Jake could muster out of his mouth. He did really just see how he thought he saw?

Trixie and Spud glanced at Jake, barely able to hear him.

"You say something, Jakie?" Trixie asked, turning her head towards her friend, unaware of what Jake saw or what was just across the street.

Across the street, Nigel's eyes flickered as he caught sight of Jake Long, right before the gap closed and he lost sight of the American Dragon.

"Jake?" he said, his voice strangle coming out as a whisper. What was that about? Luckily, Fu Dog did hear him.

"Really, where? I don't see him," he said, glancing from side to side.

"I could've sworn I literally just saw him."

Fu Dog wanted to make a joke, something along the lines that maybe he really just wanted to see Jake but be decided not to. Last he remembered, Jake didn't want to be here and even acting a little rude about the parade itself. Nigel was acting similar, it couldn't be that the two might be...nah, there's no way that's possible.

"Where at?" he asked, instead. Glancing up at Nigel who was still staring at the spot he saw Jake at; on that moment, Nigel saw something of interest to him: A girl with black and aquamarine hair, wearing a teal blouse, kelp green pants and blue sandals; she was drinking water. But Nigel noticed something else: having on her pocket something that looked like a wand. His wand.

"I haven't found Jake, but I think I found someone else I'm looking for!"

"Who?"

"The wand thief! That siren took it!" Nigel said pointing at her. Fu tried to warn him about being so sudden in his actions, but Nigel had already taken off to hopefully get his wand back from her.

"Nigel, wait!" Fu called as he ran after the boy; but it was fruitless, Nigel was already on his way.

Jake, meanwhile was not far away from the scene himself; as it turns out, he also spotted the siren, but the siren spotted him, shocked to see the Dragon, she ran off, making Jake chase after her, saying to Trixie and Spud:

"I've got her!" as he bolted.

"Got what?"

"The siren!" Jake shouted as he was chasing her, on that moment; he met with Nigel who was running by his side."Nigel?!" he said to his old 'rival' upon turning and seeing him, "The heck are you doing here?!"

"My wand! How about you?"

"Dragon Duty!"

"Oh...makes sense in context."

"Can we just focus on the siren?!"

"Whatever you say, but I call dibs on beating her!"

"What? Why you?!"

"She has my wand...it's personal."

"And I'm the dragon here! It's personal too!"

While the two were bantering and chasing her, the siren saw that she was heading into a dead end. However, she didn't seem too worried about that once she realized the two were in fact males - albeit she would have to bank that either her scheme would work or that they were indeed one of two sexualities.

"End of the line, siren." Jake shouted once the siren hit the dead end, trying to be intimidating even though was a bit cocky for that.

The siren smirks, and turns around saying:

"I think it's you two who are at the end of the line, actually~" the siren takes the wand from her pocket and starts twirling it as she continues to speak: "I think both of you should know how confusing and overwhelming love can be, right!"

Only then did they realize what they were dealing with. And the siren used her hypnotic singing voice, amplified with the magic of the wand; resulting in Jake and Nigel easily being enthralled within her powers alongside anyone who was within earshot of her singing. The effects immediately showed themselves - they were all effectively under her complete control.

"And now, I got you under my spell; American Dragon." the siren said "You think that you'll get off scot free after what you did to my sister Vicky!?"

"I'm sorry" Jake spoke back, even while under control of the siren. "I promise that I'll never break her heart again."

"It's too late for that!...but it's not too late to help me with the next best thing…" the Siren smirked as she held her hand on Jake "You and your wizard friend will help me to make sure that all the surface world will tremble under our hand."

"Yes, anything you say, mistress" both Jake and Nigel spoke in unison as if under a trance - which they were.

"Excellent, you'll make two great pets once we dominate the surface."

"Pets" they both once more repeated in unison, completely under her will.

"Now come along, the time for the air-breathers is at the verge of closing, as Poseidon as my witness, I'll co-" but her speech was interrupted as someone has thrown colorful dust to her.

"*cough**cough**cough*"

"Sister, you really need to shorten up your evil monologues." Trixie showed up holding balloons filled with colorful dust in a box. Her pescense and the fact she was not under the siren's control did indeed make the woman gasp:

"What's this?! How are you resisting my control?!"

"Simple...we weren't there when you decided to sing your hit...that and the fact that the loud music of the parade drowned it just a notch."

"Ugh! No matter! You two, destroy her now!" the two were about to attack Trixie at that moment - Jake transforming into his dragon form to do so. Naturally, Trixie backed away and did appear to be concerned as she was faced with this problem:

"Man, I thought we'd already been through this!"

The chase went right into the parade, as the party was still in full motion; the siren snapped her fingers and the rest of the people entranced by the siren's song was following after her. All Trixie could do was run and try to think of a plan on how to deal with her issue. The siren was also doing her best to remain singing in order to gain as many new followers as possible. Even with the magic being amplified it had a margin of error with the type of people in the crowd.

"Think Trixie, think." Trixie thought to herself "How did we beat Vicki last time? Gotta act fast before she has half o' New York followin' her around!"

Then, all of the sudden she snapped her fingers and had just the trick.

"First, I better get Spud and Fu…" and Trixie goes to meet with the two,finding them not far away from where Jake had first run off at - they had lost Jake in the crowd initially.

"Guys! Bad news! Jake and Nigel are entranced by a siren...again."

"I tried to warn him!" Fu said, having met up with Spud by this time, "But he didn't listen!"

"So...Ideas on how to snapped them out of it?" Spud asked, to which Trixie said:

"I'm tryin' to think o' that, and you two should probably be careful too, unless you wanna be her slaves or somethin'!"

"I don't think I'll like that, I don't see myself wearing a loincloth and fanning her with a giant fan."

"Then help me out fast!"

Meanwhile, with the siren she viewed her plan going smoothly, as if nothing on earth could make it fail if things kept going the way she was seeing them go. But then something happened that changed her mind about the situation.

"Bombs away!"

Just as she became confused, she saw what those words meant. All of the sudden, fish sticks were raining above her.

"EEEWWW, YOU INHUMAN MONSTERS!" The siren shouted as she was repelling the fish sticks from her, but she didn't notice that the fish sticks had salt on them, making her skin burn a little with each bit that got onto her. "AAAH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!" In this sense of distress; she without looking, pushed Jake, who had sense returned to his human form. Jake's body made no resistance due to her control, and as a result he ultimately clashed with Nigel. This resulted on both of them, kissing in the process. Locking their lips together while in their trance.

Funny enough, that was all the crowd, including media and people filming this, seemed to actually pay attention to. It did take them a while before both of them realized what's going on, and they managed to snap out of their trances the moment they realized it too. Needless to say, they pulled away from each other swiftly and had this response:

"AAAAHHH!"

"That…..that…..did NOT just happen!" Jake nearly screamed, _he did NOT just kiss Nigel Thrall_.

"How do you think I feel?!" Nigel hissed, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

"I don't know, I thought you'd like it!"

"Oh shut up!"

"Guys, I think we're forgetting the important matters right now." Fu Dog broke up the argument, getting the two to turn to him as if they were confused. Fu was swift to remind them of the real issue though by pointing to the enemy while saying, "The Siren?!"

Jake and Nigel said no more and went right to chase her.

The siren, getting away from the flying fish sticks had lost most of her control over everyone, giving the heroes their one true chance to take her down.

"We can't let her get away!" Jake stated, as the group followed after her, "Follow me!"

"And why are you leading?" Nigel argued, Fu Dog growled as he hurried beside them.

"Cut with the arguing, you can argue once this is settled," Fu said, as they turned a corner. Jake had to think of something, what could they do? First, maybe get Nigel's wand back; without it, her voice couldn't be empowered again and Nigel could use some spell that could render her defenseless. But what could they do to get it away from her?

 _Wait, get it away from her…_

"Nigel," Jake turned his head towards the other, a plan finally coming into focus. Nigel turned his gaze, he could pull the firealram that one time, maybe he could pull his wand back.

"Do you think you can pull your wand out of her grasp? Just like that time with the alarm?"

Nigel glanced towards the siren, she was just ahead of them, moving. _Back then, everything was still, could he do it?_

"Yes, I can. Or at least, I shall hope so," Nigel said, his eyes narrowing as he zoned in on his wand. He could see it, just at her hip. _He could do this._

" Fish into the pond, bring back thy wand," Nigel chanted, his voice barely cutting through. Nigel tried to breath in, he needed to be clearer.

"Fish into the pond! Bring back thy wand!"

The wand flow off the siren's hip, back towards Nigel, who reached out his hand; caughting it in mid air. A sense of lightning went through Nigel's hand, his wand was back in its rightful place, with its rightful owner.

"Nice, Nigel!" Jake cheered, glancing back towards the siren, who had just realized what happened, she glared, her face reddening with anger.

"Why you…!"

"Nigel, think you can make some kind of object in front of her? I can tackle her down if we can cut her off!" Jake said, Nigel smirked, with a flick of his wrist, there wasn't anything he couldn't do now that his wand was back.

"Leave the spell casting to me, you just get ready to take her down," he said, Jake smirked as he jumped up.

"Dragon up!" the flames surrounding Jake as he turned into his dragon form, Nigel glanced around before seeing three dumpsters along the buildings. With a flick of his wrist, a glow of his wand, Nigel moved the dumpsters right in front of the siren, making her run right into them; hitting herself against them.

"OUCH!"

Jake flew down, breathing fire right around the siren, forcing her against the dumpster, she was cornered. Looking for an out and desperate, the siren climbed onto the lid. Right as she stood up, Jake tackled her to the ground, knocking her out. With her out cold, Nigel flicked his wand towards some of the rainbow flags, making them wrap around her, tying her up.

Fu Dog caught up to them, out of her breath, he glanced around them before spotting a smaller flag just hanging outside a window; taking it down, Fu tied it around the siren's mouth.

"Don't want to hear that siren song any time soon," he said, chuckling. Jake sighed as he returned to his human form, he sighed, finally catching his breath. Nigel breathed as well, falling to his knees.

"Indeed," he breathed, looking at his wand. Jake walked over to the wizard, patting his back.

"Thanks, Nigel," he said, smiling at the other. Nigel shared the smile as he got back onto his feet.

"Don't get use to me lending you a hand, Long, this won't happen too often," he said, Jake rolled his eyes as Trixie and Spud finally caught up with them, the two winded from running more on this mission than in P.E.

"It happens more times than either of you two would like," Trixie said, placing a hand on her hip, how many times as these two worked together and it worked out perfectly? Spud smiled as he pointed at the siren.

"She's asleep, like, sleeping with the fishes, right?" Spud asked, Trixie facepalming.

"Spud, you do realize that means dying in the water, right?" she asked, Spud looked dumbfounded before looking back at the parade.

"Well, the parade is still going on, maybe we can watch the rest," he said, Jake frowned, the mission was done, they could go home now. That's all he wanted to do, he wasn't comfortable with coming to this in the first place.

"You guys can stay, I'm going home for a nap," Jake sighed, stepping away from the group. Nigel couldn't deny, he felt the same way:

"Yes, I agree. By quite a lot, might I add."

As such, with having been said Nigel and Jake parted ways with each other - both of them at this point wanting to erase the memory of them kissing out of their heads and pretend as if it didn't happen. Though at the same time, they both had the feeling that sooner or later this same memory was practically inevitably going to come back to haunt them. Perhaps it would even do so sooner rather than later.

For now though, all they wanted was just what they said - a nap. In separate locations, of course.


	2. Chapter 2

It was not a day that Jake would have wanted in a million years.

Following the adventure that had been the pride parade day, Jake wanted nothing more than to rest and forget about that _one_ incident that happened during it. However, he learned very early on that the rest of the world was not going to make it so easy. It started when he woke up, sitting up in his bed and stretching out as he woke up to the sunlight gleaming in through his window. For him and his busy dragon schedule it was a rarity that it was the sun that actually ever woke him up. He actually liked it, for the moment it had seemed this day was actually going to be positive for him. However, he had to leave his bedroom sooner or later.

Jake descended down the staircase, yawning as he went. It was a rare sight for him and his family to see Jake looking like he actually got some sleep. His mother greeted him as he took a seat next to his sister, Hayley, who made a sarcastic remark on how Jake looked like 'Sleeping Beauty' which propped Jake to give her a playful father joined them at the table, switching the tv on to hear the morning news.

Of course, the first thing that was said was about yesterday's Pride Parade. Jake grimaced as he tried to tone out the tv while his family turned their gazes towards it as a newswoman talked about the parade and it's many couples coming out to celebrate; including one couple.

It was Jake's mother who got Jake's attention as she dropped the bowl of pancake mix, freezing in place as she stared at the screen, voice catching Jake's ears.

"That's right, Tom, a young couple couldn't contain their joy as one on-looker snapped a picture of the two young lovers embracing on the street," the woman said in a cheerful voice. Jake slowly turned his head, in horror as he sight his sight on the screen.

On the screen, starring Jake down, was none other than that shared kiss between himself and Nigel.

He wanted to scream, but was so shocked that instead all he could do is hang his jaw open in a combination of horror and humiliation. How could this happen? Who took that picture? Wiat, that didn't really happen of who the person in question was, it was about who was going to see this?!

Jake couldn't show his face in school ever again! Sure, Trixie and Spud would know it wasn't a real kiss however no one else would believe him if he said he didn't kiss Nigel, they ran into each other! But they were the only ones, this was worse than any siren.

"J-Jake, sweetie," his mother moved over to Jake, placing a hand on Jake's should. Oh, no.

"Yeah, Mom?"

"Is there anything you want to tell me? I still love you, I just want to know," she said, his father was still staring at the tv, his face pale while Hayley was looking between him and the tv.

Jake sighed, of course his family would react to this, it wasn't a surprise but it was an annoyance. Jake glanced up at his mom, looking tired again.

"I ran into him, it wasn't a real kiss, Mom. Nigel had his wand stolen and he was helping me track down the siren that stole it. Then we got possessed and I ran into him and that happened, this is so embarrassing!" Jake whined, crashing his head against the table.

Jake's father finally turned towards him, his face still a little pale but the color was slowly returning. He fixed his glasses on his face before turning off the tv.

"Jake, does this happen often in your magical duties?" his father asked.

Though Jonathan was human, he married into the Dragon Family. He hadn't known for years until just some time ago his own son was the First American Dragon. He couldn't stop it or really do anything for his son, but that didn't stop Jonathan Long from being Jake's father and at the very least, supporting Jake went he needed his father to step in.

And this was one of those times; whether this was just some crazy accident or Jake wasn't being honest here, didn't matter to Jonathan. He was going to support his son and help him in anyway he can. But first…

"Not really," Jake muttered, he could only imanage how many people he knew saw that picture. Which made Jake realize something else; _what was Nigel going to think about this?_

Luckily for Jake, it wasn't going to take a genius to figure out the answer to that question.

Nigel was, for lack of better words, humiliated by what was presented on television. He wore his hooded cloak up to hide his head and face as he journeyed from his own residence to where it was that he needed to be.

"I can not believe it was made _that_ public." he said to himself, keeping his head down as if in fear and shame, "This is unbelievable, they took everything completely out of context! Worst of all, it's not like they even care…"

Nigel tired to think about how he could possibly get rid of that memory, get rid of the picture. He wasn't nearly powerful enough to cast a spell that big nor was that legal in the magical realm unless it was a matter of protecting lives; an out of context picture was not a matter of life of death. However it was a matter of humiliation and despair.

" _I can only hope nobody…..ugh, if only I had not forgotten the words to that invisibility spell."_

Nigel got to the school building, where there were already some students standing at the entrance. Nigel took a deep breath; gays may be more expected but high school was still high school. Even if Nigel protested, he knew too well how the teenage brain worked. Hopefully these ones would leave him alone.

Lady Luck was not going to be shining down on him today; as he got closer to the door, one of the boys glared at Nigel as a girl hissed at the other brother to 'stop it' as Nigel passed them. It wasn't much but it was enough to tell Nigel just what was in store for him. However one thing did cross his mind;

 _Jake was going to be affected by all of this nonsense too._

This was apartishly Jake's doing, too, so possibly they could do something to fix this mess. However, he doubted they could do anything, it wasn't that simple, wasn't it?

" _I don't know who to turn to then"_ Nigel thought, " _It appears I have nobody that could possibly have a simple solution, unless I'm supposed to just lie in secret until everyone forgets about it….which is always an option."_

Nigel stepped through the hallways, keeping his hood up, despite school rules about it. He didn't want anyone to talk to him, let alone single him out. All he wanted was to not be noticed. If he could just make it through the day without being called out, he'd be happy.

"Nigel!" a very familiar voice boomed down the hallway.

So much for that, no doubt who's voice that was. Nigel didn't not want to talk to Jake so soon however the universe decided they were going to deal with this issue now. Couldn't he get one break? He got his wand back but was that the only break he was getting?

"Morning, Long," Nigel greeted through clenched teeth. The dragon looked just as nervous as he felt as he came up to him, Trixie and Spud were in tow as they both looked worried.

"Did...did you see the news this morning?" he asked, Trixie and Spud stood close enough to make it look as if this was a group conversation, not that it would help all that much.

"No, Long, I'm just keeping my hood up because it's a fashion statement," Nigel hissed, Jake glared at him, this wasn't his fault alone! That kiss was a two person effector, and now that he thought that his mind went blank.

"Look, I'm not happy with this as much as you are, but is there anything you can do? Like, memory erasing of something?" Jake asked, noticing some girls looking at them and giggling. Nigel pulled at his hood, this couldn't get any worse.

"That would be illegal, Long, and secondly, could you not call me out? Everyone thinks we're not only gay but a couple," Nigel pointed out.

"Which we're NOT!" Jake remarked.

"Ssh! Do you want to draw attention to us after that?!"

"I don't want people thinking we're gay! But what are we supposed to do? Just tell people over and over we're not?! There's picture of us kissing, Nigel! On public news!" Jake's voice was right at the level between a yell and a scream, several heads were turning towards them.

"Oh, wow, looks like the honeymoon's over," a girl's voice cut through the crowd.

"You think Jake was gay even before he tried to get with Rose or did he turn gay?" a male voice spoke out.

Jake's cheek turned red as Nigel sighed in annoyance; this was what he was afraid of. People were just going to assume they were gay and Jake's hotheadness was going to make things worse. Nigel could only think of one thing to do;

"Long, I think we should just avoid each other until all this settles down and is forgotten," Nigel said, Jake crossed his arms.

"That's it? Just...ignore everything until it's forgotten? You realize that could take months to years, right?" Jake asked, Trixie chimed in.

"Then what am I supposed to do?!"

"Ya both realize that with distractions these days, I bet everyone in the school will have forgotten about it in just a few months?" the girl added in, Spud nodded.

"I already forgotten about it; what are we talking about?"

Jake and Nigel sighed, at least Trixie and Spud were trying to help, but that didn't end what was going to be anything from bullying to questions any time soon.

"And besides, the people who know you two will know you two aren't gay," Trixie said, making the two glance at each other than her.

"If anyone bothers you guys too much, just punch 'em," she said, shurrging. She knew they won't really need it, but it did ease the tension.

"Thanks for the tip….I guess."

"No problem!"

And that moment, Jake and Nigel shared a glance, Nigel finally taking his hood down. The two were still thinking of voiding each other for good measure, however handling everyone at school was another question all together. It wasn't like gay couples weren't expected, the Pride Parade was just yesterday, for crying out loud. However, they still had to set everyone straight;

 _Jake Long and Nigel Thrall were NOT a couple_ They were sure of it, and were going to make sure everyone else did too!

Starting with the group of students standing across the hallway from them; they had been staring at Jake and Nigel since Jake approached the other, and it was getting on Jake's nervous.

"You hear that?! We're NOT a couple!" Jake said loud and frimley. One of the girls glanced at her friend, neither one looked convinced. The two girls crossed their arms as the girl said in a matter-of-factly tone;

"Then, why did you two kiss so lovely? It was all over the news and made the front page," she informed him. Jake could scream; it made front page? Why didn't he see that?

"We're not a couple, that was an accident taken out of context," Nigel said, crossing his arms and stepping away from Jake. the wizard was already tired of this nonsense.

One of the girls whispered something to her friend, the girl's face soften then she smiled.

"Oh, I get it; you two weren't fully out of the closet!" she squealed. Jake and Nigel's jaw dropped, that wasn't what they just said.

"No, no! We're…" Nigel tried to speak but the girls only giggled and smiled at them.

"Don't worry, it's okay; be yourselves," the girl said, her friend hugged her shoulder.

"We're totally for Team Jake-Nigel," the other said. Jake and Nigel glanced at each other before groaning. This wasn't what they were expecting, yet it seemed way two couldn't escape this.

And that fact couldn't be more true, Pride Parades were an international happening, they happened all around the world. News Stations did talk about them, Jake may not have been thinking of just who saw the picture, there were two people he should've thought of, but in the heat of the moment, he didn't. That was quite perhaps his greatest mistake.

As Jake and Nigel tried again to get through to the two girls, one girl was marching up to Jake, not making a sound until she was right behind him.

"Ahem." a female voice made Jake's heart drop, his mistake had come to bite him.

"Oh, hey, Danika, what's up?" he greeted the girl, nervously. In addition to Jake, Nigel also turned towards the black haired girl, he hadn't had the chance to meet her or heard much about her, other than being the Captain of the Swim Team. Danika Hunnicut.

"Jacob Luke Long...we need to talk." Dannika said, not in a happy tone.

"Aw man…." Jake said, already dreading it all, "I think I know what about."

"I bet you do." and Danika showed up on her cellphone, the picture of Jake and Nigel kissing.

"Look, it was an accident, alright?!" Jake tried to explain, "Something happened there."

"OK...what happened?"

"It was…..um…...well, like I said, there was like a lot of people there, we just got bumped into and it happened by total accident, okay?!"

Danika had his glare piercing at Jake and with her arms crossed, while Jake just tried to give her an innocent, sheepish smile in response. He wanted to get out of this so that it may never be spoken of again, while Nigel just stood silently off to the side of this whole thing, figuring it best he not say anything.

"Are you sure it was the spur at the moment?" Dannika asked again, "And not, anything else?"

"I promise!"

"All right, Jake...I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and one last chance...but that's all."

"Phew...thank you, Danika."

While Danika walked away, however, she looked at Nigel and squinted her eyes - clearly distrusting the redhead as she said:

"I'm keeping my eyes on you."

"Um….alright?" and after Nigel said that, Jake was dragged off by Danika, Jake continuing to be relieved that he had effectively 'dodged a bullet'. At least, for the time being. Nigel, meanwhile...kept thinking:

" _I can't help but…..no…..no, I'm just going a bit rather crazy, I need to get it out of my head!"_ Nigel kept repeating that to himself, trying to assure himself that the thoughts in his head were anything but sane and normal - he wanted to get rid of them. Jake was not feeling any better either, his mind being perhaps even more scrambled. On one hand, Jake was sure that what happened on the pride parade was an accident, but he felt…

" _Weird….."_


	3. Chapter 3

Her name was Rose - surname not important.

To start things off about her, she was beautiful. Of average height, she had crystal blue eyes, perfectly blonde hair of long length, and a youthful, flawless face. Dressed in simple clothes, mostly consisting of pink or white colours, she was currently seated silently on a plane with her parents in seats beside her. The young lady right now was looking at the blue skies from the window as the airplane she was on started to land, herself having travelled with her parents from Hong Kong to New York. As she was doing that, she takes a time to take a look on a picture: herself, and Jake at a school dance, a memory which she has cherished ever since it happened...at least, if she can remember it fully.

To be fair however, she did remember it enough to pass.

"Can't wait to see you again." she said to herself, softly smiling. On that moment, she heard the sound of the plane, signaling to buckle up for landing - which she did at just the right time.

It took a while so Rose can hop off the plane along with her two family members. While her father was thinking of his business trip's importance, for once all she was thinking about was Jake.

Speaking of Jake, he was still feeling incredibly awkward about everything that proved to still be transpiring in his life. For now, he was in his room - thinking about everything and also about how he was going to handle it.

"What am I gonna do right now?" Jake thought, "How in the heck am I supposed to get outta this mess?"

On that moment, his cellphone rang, actually making jump for a bit until he realized it was nothing to be afraid of - much to his relief, seeing the one calling: SPUD. Answering it, Jake greeted with:

"Hey Spud, 'sup?"

"Yo, Jake...where the heck are you? I can't find you anywhere 'round the park."

"Oh, right...sorry 'bout that...must've lost track of time or somethin'..."

"...another AmDrag duty call?"

"Kinda."

"Oh...sorry 'bout that, is just that you seemed kinda disconnected recently."

What do you mean?"

"I dunno...maybe it started after Pride-"

"What pride? I don't remember nothin' that had to do with pride over anything!"

"..."

"I'm serious!"

"Oh, know...I'm just trying to remember the reason I called you."

"Okay….well….you tell me."

"I...I just forgot."

"Oh….kay, I...I gotta go, I think I should be somewhere-"

"WAIT!"

But Jake hang up anyway. Jake sighed as he look upwards again, and thought:

"Awwww man….I still have the taste of Nigel's lips on the mouth, not even a thousand of gallons of mouthwash will wash'em away…..maybe I can at least get my mind off it though."

On that moment, the cellphone rang again, with Jake answering it again too:

"Yo?"

"What up, dragon?" a female voice made Jake surprise, a voice that he didn't heard on a long time.

"R-Rose!"

"Hey Jake." Rose said with a soft giggle, "Been a while, hasn't it?"

"I know, right."

"H-how's it going?"

"Why so nervous, Jake?"

"It's...it's nothing, I just remember I wasn't wearing pants right now!" then Jake thought: " _Stupid, stupid, stupid!"_

"...okay then. I'm just right now arriving to New York since my dad has a business trip, isn't this great?"

"Yeah….it sure is!"

"I can't wait to see you again, maybe we should go on a date or something!"

"Me neither."

"Good, so…you tell when and where."

"Got it….hmmm…how about Coney Island?"

"Coney Island? Alright then….now the day…"

"How about a weekend? This weekend or next one?"

"Works for me! My family's gonna stay for a while so there's no pressure to go right away."

"Wonderful...just, wonderful!"

"...oh, sorry; I gotta go, we've arrived to the hotel, see ya later?"

"See you."

And the two hanged up, but after that; Jake started to feel the nerves, shaking nearly uncontrollably at just the thought of the events that soon would be transpiring. On that moment, the cellphone rang one more time.

"Hello?"

"Jake? It's me, Danika."

"Oh! Hey! Heheh."

"How's it going? I just called you to check on you...is everything alright?"

"Yeah, don't worry 'bout me, everythings a'ight!"

"...are you sure?"

"Yep! Just plain ol' me, haha"

"Alright...well…I was thinking the both of us could go on a date."

"A...date? Sure! Just name the time and the place and I'll be there!"

"Maybe this weekend or next weekend on Coney Island."

"...Coney...Island?"

"Yeah, I thought it'll be fun!"

"Well, yeah! It sure will be!"

"Cool! ' .wait, don't you, Jake? I bet we can kiss once we're at the top of the ferris wheel, that'll be romantic."

"Heh...yeah, definitely romantic."

"Anyways, I better get going; I'm coming with my mom to go to the store, see ya later."

"A'ight...see ya later bae!"

And the two hang up, but then Jake enters in a state of panic:

"THIS. CAN'T. BE. REAL." Jake rolled around his bed, "WHY YOU HAVE TO BE SUCH AN IDIOT, JAKE! AWWWWWWWWW MAN!" Jake took a pillow and put it on his face, grunting to let out his emotions.

However, he had to calm himself. Surely if he thought long enough, he could come up with some kind of solution. Or at least, he hoped so.

"OK...I got this….I can handle this; they don't know the other even exist, so...how bad could things possibly go? Am I right? Am I right?!" but then, he noticed he wasn't talking to anyone."Great...talking to myself."

The next day at school, Nigel was in the library, quietly just trying to focus on himself and the studies for the day, though he couldn't help but overhear what some of those in the same building were whispering about not too far off from where he was silently seated.

"Did you heard it? Remember that girl Rose?"

"Yeah, she's on New York, but...I thought she went to study abroad."

"I almost forgot about her, it's been so long!"

"Yeah, me too...but...why?"

"So far, I don't know; all I know is that's she's back...and Jenna told Martha, and Martha told Elisa, and Elisa told me that she's looking for Jake."

"Jake? You mean Jake Long?"

"Who else?"

"Well, why would she want him for?"

"Probably to come back….at least those were the rumors I heard."

"What!? That can't be possible."

"I know, right! I mean, she doesn't know Jake is dating the swim team captain?"

"I guess not."

"If she does find out, things are gonna get messy."

"...and juicy."

"Carmen!"

Nigel, as he heard this, couldn't help but raise a brow and even wonder at how Jake possibly gets himself into these kinds of messes;.

"Jake, Jake, Jake." Nigel shook his head in disbelief, as he left, "When will you learn?"

But as Nigel continued to walk off, his mind was playing games with him - that 'weird' feeling from before had come back. Nigel held his heart, feeling how it was beginning to beat faster when he thought about the Asian-American dragon boy. "Jake….Jake…..Jake….NO! I can't do this….I can't be thinking this….this is impossible…I need to get my mind on something else."

And Nigel ran off a little, hoping that no one spotted him - especially in a moment such as this. He did not want to deal with something like that right now. Not with what he was thinking about: Jake.

"No…..I am not…...never have I been….ugh" he groaned, shaking his head as he hid behind one of the large shelves of books, trying to take deep breaths and pull himself back together - even putting a hand onto his forehead. "It's most likely only because I have such fresh memories of him", he told himself, "I simply need to make memories of new people, and I'm sure these thoughts will sort themselves out. Or perhaps, I just need to keep my distance. Or perhaps even both…...why do I feel like I am repeating myself?"

Shaking his head again, Nigel walked off from where was and pulled himself together as if nothing had happened. He had hoped nobody had seen his deep breathing and perhaps even sweat breaking.

As for Jake, things were not so fortunate. Little did Nigel know how much Jake himself was panicking - one the inside far more than the outside. He did thankfully get a chance to see Trixie and Spud again, at the skate park as always, but before they could even skate on any of the pipes, Jake had to explain the situation that was now looming over him and dropping in fast. Needless to say, both of his friends were quite vocal about it, Trixie especially:

"WHAT?!"

"How do you think I feel?! How am I supposed to deal with this?!"

"You see, this is why I told you to pick one! You can't be datin' them both!" Trixie said sternly.

"Well it's not like I planned to run into Rose at Hong Kong! It's not like I planned for all that stuff to happen back there! It's not my fault!"

"But you COULD have explained to either Rose or Danika 'bout the other!"

"She's got a point bro" Spud chimed in, "I mean, could've let 'em off easy, ya know. Now you're kinda headed right for a train wreck."

"Are you two crazy!?" Jake jumped in defense "You have any idea on what those two are capable of?"

"Do you have another choice, bro?"

Jake tried to think, maybe he could find a way to work things out...but the more he thought that, the more his mind was invaded by thoughts of Rose and Danika either fighting each other or banding to destroy Jake.

"Nononono." Jake said in panic "I can handle this! Trust me guys, I got this!"

"Are you sure?" Trixie raised a brow, "Cuz it sure don't seem like it!"

"Trixie, when was the last time I screwed up?"

"Well, this month...not many."

"Ha ha." Jake laughed sarcastically, "Yeah, I bet."

"But to be fair, you technically have a bit of a history of messin' up pretty bad, remember the the first Siren incident?"

"Man, those were good times." Spud commented.

"Yeah, I remember it. It doesn't mean it'll happen this month! I got a plan, and I'll got this under control, trust." and with that having been said, Jake began walking off from his friends as he realized that it would be less stressful for him to plan this out by himself. Or at least, that's what his mind thought would be less stressful. Regardless, his friends still wanted to help.

"Jake, wait!" Trixie called for him, "We're only trying to help you out here!"

"I know" Jake turned back to face them just before he had left the park, "But I can handle this on my own."

"Well then why did you even tell us in the first place if you're so sure about that?"

"Look I'm just gonna go off and think about this while I can, it's not like I have much time to wait until both Danika and Rose show up for their dates with me."

"And then what are you gonna do? Try and 'play' 'em both some more than you already have?"

"I'm not playin' them! Or, I'm not trying to 'play' them! I just need to settle this!"

"And that's what we're trying to help you with! Sooner or later you're gonna have to decide which one you love more, cuz I promise you they won't let you date both of 'em!"

"Dude" Spud tried to calmly add in, "You do still love Rose, right?"

"No duh!"

"So….why don't you just break off with Danika?"

"Well….it's not like I don't like Danika…"

"But do you LIKE her like her, or just like her?"

"I…..look, I'm gonna go rest while I still can...alright?"

"Fine, Jakie" Trixie sighed, "But I'm not picturing a good future right now."

"Well, you're not one of the oracle twins, so...yeah….later." and with that, Jake walked off. As for Trixie, Spud very much shared the mental picture that she had of the upcoming future.

"He's doomed, isn't he?"

"I think that's the understatement of the year right there."

Meanwhile, with Nigel; he was trying to do his best to avoid contact with anyone around him, having just walked outside of the library after finishing all of his business there.

"Maybe reading something might clear my head." Nigel thought, as he looked at a book he had brought out with him, "Something like this should do the trick perfectly." Nigel got some literature books from the shelf, but then he managed to bump into someone right before he could really get a second look at the title. This bumping made him drop the book, but his focus quickly shifted to the one he had bumped into Danika.

"Oh, sorry about that" Danika said, laughing softly as her and Nigel both happened to bend down to pick up what they had both dropped, perhaps not yet noticing who she bumped into, "I wasn't watching where I was going."

"It's quite alright."

"So….", Danika realized who he was, "Nigel, right?"

"That would be correct, and Danika, I presume?"

"Yes, that's me." Danika said as she tried to help Nigel, "You're quite the talk around here."

"Oh, is that so?" Nigel said in a front of confidence, though Nigel couldn't help but shake a little in the inside, as he know what she meant.

"Yeah...I mean, it's not hard to spot a guy with a nice British accent."

Nigel sighed of relief.

"Oh, well, of course." he said with a smile, "And thank you for the compliment. I've heard about you as well, captain of the swim team, correct?"

"Yes, I am...anyway, what brings you here?"

"Oh, I was just looking for a quiet place to study is all."

"I know right, the school can get very noisy sometimes."

"I bet…" and then, the two, still enjoying a pleasant conversation with eachother, walked over beside each other to another place so they can study.

"I was just passing through some moments of doubt, that's all….but I don't think you should know more." Nigel continued.

"Why not?"

"It's….personal. Let's just say that."

"Oh really?" but on that moment, Danika feels her cell phone vibrating, she quickly turned her attention over to it. "Oh, hold up."

"Of course."

Danika picks up her phone to see that she received a text message from Jake:

" _Suuuuup?_

"Hehe...right on schedule." Daninka whispered to herself, smiling pleasantly.

"What's that?" Nigel asked, but Danika only gave him a gesture to say her conversation was also private.

"My apologies." Nigel said as he gently walked away, but before he could go, he said:

"I'll try to find a desk to sit on, can I wait for you?"

"Um, sure."

Nigel with that having been said went to his own spot, but Nigel couldn't help but feel his mind feel uneasy, what with Jake finding a way back onto it.

" _Jake, Jake, Jake...why can't stop thinking about him?"_ Nigel asked to himself, " _This...this should be impossible….and yet…,here I am."_

But that should be the least of the concerns, since on the shadowy parts of the piers of New York, three suspicious shadows were emerging, signaling of the trouble that's peeking on the horizon...and its glare could be….petrifying.


	4. Chapter 4

Around the same time of day that Nigel was speaking with Danika, Jake himself remained 'busy' within the male bathroom - only he was not doing the business that one was supposed to be doing, even though he could faintly smell residue of it around the room. Rather, he was instead pacing around the place in front of the sinks; all the while his ever best friend Spud was looking at him with the usual concern such a close friend has, and with good reason.

"Um, dude" Spud spoke, his tone of voice matching his face, "you've been moving in circles for...wait..." Spud, with a sudden realization, pulled out his wrist to check his watch to make sure of something, "...yep, now it's officially 7 minutes since you've been doing that; I think you should rest-"

"I'm in hot water, Spud!" Jake quickly exclaimed, panic running throughout his body, "Hot water I tell you! Almost boiling! And the worst part is that I'm not the one heating it up, you have any idea how terrifying this whole thing is!? If Rose and Danika find out about this, I'm toast!" the dragon boy couldn't help but let out a soft growl in response to his ever worsening situation, "Why am I trapped in this mess of a love triangle!? Why did no one develop this situation better?!"

"Well, you know, you could've like, not tried to woo Danika after the whole siren thing?"

"That's not helping me right now!"

"Yeah, to be honest; I don't know if any of my laidback quips can help you this time."

"Gee, thanks" Jack snarked, "That's real helpful."

"It's easy for you say!" Jake yet again exclaimed, "You only had Stacey to worry about and that was it! I had way more than that on my plate, I'm just lucky Jasmine's not involved as number three right now!"

"Oh yeah, I wonder what happened to her?" Spud asked curiously, brow raised in accordance with his mood.

"Let's not worry about right now, Spud!" Jake said as he stopped "How am I gonna do this? How am I gotta get out of this one?"

"Well, you're gonna have to dump one of them. I'm surprised you're not just picking Rose to be honest bro."  
"It's because it's not easy, dude." Jake explains "I finally get to see Rose again after all these years and it's supposed to be the happiest day of my life, but I almost feel the same way with Danika."

"Well, I'm here to try to help; why don't you try at least have a time for each of them before a final decision."

"How? I have two dates at the same time, and there's no way I can't be at two places at the same time." And then Jake got an idea, rather quickly; being expressed by a snap on the fingers.

"Yo yo yo yo, I got it! The Dopplegangers!"

"Double what now?" Spud asked Jake, as the two of them started to get out of the bathrooms and went to the school hallways.

"Don't ya remember, those copies of myself I made that one time to help me take a load off, only for one of 'em to go all evil and need to be stopped?"

*asked Spud, not immediately remembering until during Jake's response:

"Oh right, yeah; that could work...but how you'll make sure none of them become evil this time?"

"Cuz now I know what not to do! This time I'll just make one or two clones and I'll keep myself in touch with the doubles so they tell me how things will go."

"Trust Spud, I will make it work; have I ever screwed up with these situations?" Jake said with a cocky grin, but Spud was hesitant to answer, luckily for him he ultimately didn't have to since Jake had to talk with Danika, though he had to wait a little; meanwhile, Trixie managed to catch up with Spud and Jake, but Spud signaled his friend to keep quiet while Jake talks.

"Hello?" Danika's voice is heard on the phone.

"Oh, S'up, Dani."

"Jake, I was just about to call you up to see about our date."

"That's sweet cuz I was just thinking about doin' the same! Oh, I mean in a good way, don't get the wrong idea now, haha!"

"It's okay Jake, I know what you mean."

"Heh, welp; what'cha want, Danika? What can I do for you? Something wrong with the date we got set up?"

"I was thinking that maybe a date on Coney Island is a little bit too much; maybe we could do something more..I don't know, simple or quiet."

"Oh, simple and quiet huh? Don't worry, I can definitely manage that! In fact, I think I know just the place!"

"You do?"

"Yep!"

"Well, where?"

"Maybe we can go to a restaurant, catch a flick or maybe a walk in the park."

"Oh Jake, you can be such a romantic sometimes~"

"Heh" Jake chuckled, "Only the best for you, Dani~"

"Well, I'm up for wherever you want to go, Jake."

"Fantastic!" Jake smiled, "How about a movie, all on me!"

"Okay, which movie?"

"I don't know, I'm in the mood of anything you like, if you think you can pick."

"I think I have one or two options, but maybe I should leave it as a surprise, for now~" Jake tried to make it possible to feel the wink he was making as he finished his words.

"Heh heh, I'll look forward to it, so; see ya at Saturday at your house?"

"It's a deal!"

"Okie-doke, bye."

"Byeee!"

With that all having been said, Jake ended the call only after Danika herself had been the first to do so. After that he confidently turned to Trixie and Spud once again, with a grin plastered on his face and hands on his hips. However, they were not so confident that his problem was over yet - giving him fittingly concerned looks.

"What?" Jake said, oblivious to their worries, "Do I have something on my face?"

"Jakey, you just delayed the unavoidable." Trixie said, shaking her head, "Did you forget about your other problem?"

"And what might that be?"

"Begins with an R, rhymes with Pose."

"And used to be the Huntsgirl!" Spud chimed.

"I got it, guys; I got it! I'm not in kindergarten anymore!" Jake remarked, annoyed though with a little bit of snark on his voice "But this will buy me time on telling them about of all of this and not leave open conclusions, besides; I have a plan on Saturday that involves a double date and Chi dopplegangers."

"Jake…" Trixie said on a scolding voice, "You 'member the last time you used those things?"

"I promised that I'll be careful next time, and that time has come!" without so much more of another word, Jake walked away from the two friends of his, though both of them shook their heads with skeptical disbelief, turning to each other as Trixie commented:

"How long you think he's got before he screws it all up again this time?"

"To be honest, I don't really know." Spud shrugged, "I guess whenever Rose actually shows up?"

"Sounds about right."

Meanwhile, Jake was continuing his show of confidence as he muttered for once happily to himself; feeling that everything was at last under control.

"I got this, I know I got this!" he exclaimed rather quietly to himself, as he put his hands on the pockets and kicked up some of the dust from the ground. "They shouldn't doubt about me, after all; I know how to get myself out of this, I mean, look at me: they'll understand me with this pretty face. I just have to do the 'troubled boy' act and maybe they'll understand!"

He couldn't help but fail to see any flaw in the plan he had in his mind, always being the type to house the utmost confidence in anything he ever came up with. But at that moment, he receives another phone call this time, Jake checks the call ID with a simple word: 'FU'.

"I wonder what Fu will want now? He doesn't usually call me at this time of the day unless he wants me to get some food."

Nevertheless, he wasted no time in answering the call of the dog:

"Yo, Fu?"

"Jake, I managed to get an interesting finding!"

"Oh yeah, about what?"

"The wand stealings, I managed to analyze one of the stolen wands and it was attached to a pretty interesting symbol brooch.." On the other side of the line, Fu was seeing a golden brooch that could fit at his own paw: the symbol got two crossed wands the skull of a gryphon.

"I thought I'd never see their faces again, but there you go!"

"Dang" Jake snarked, "For real? Don't worry, I'm on it!"

"You don't understand, Jakey; these guys are no game!"

"...who are you talking about?"

"They're the Smoke Gryphons: one of the biggest magic counterfeiter rings of the magic world; they managed to get their hands on many of the world's biggest magical artifacts, but after they got busted and arrested during the 50s; I thought they've vanished for good…*woof* guess not!"

"Fu, don't worry' bout it, I'm the American Dragon! I can take 'em no problem!"

"Well, that's the thing about the Smoke Gryphons…" Fu continued, "...they're extremely stealthy about their own operations and they're hardly seen, luckily for us, just so happens I know an informant that can help us out to find them, all I have to do is reach out to him."

"A'ight fine, who is it?"

But before Fu could respond, a sound interrupts the call; the sound of a ringing bell.

"Oh, sorry Fu; gotta call later, I have literature right now! Gotta go!" Jake quickly hung up the phone, not allowing Fu to even attempt in stopping him. Fu could only let a sigh before saying:

"Maybe it's for the best, he wasn't going to like who was gonna help him, now about that spaghetti I ordered…"

Needless to say, the weekend arrived surprisingly quickly - perhaps given the fact Jake ought to have been preparing for it.

Jake was on his room, trying to go over his plans one last time:

"A'ight Jake, you got this, you got this." Jake whispered to himself as he was slightly jumping in place, kicking his heels together even, "Got this one in the bag, yo!"

As one would expect from him, Jake was trying to psyche himself up for his first of two dates:

"Hair, check; breath, fresh; red jacket, fly; moves, swingin'! Yep, everythin's right as it should be!" Then, after a good moment he managed to take deep breaths and closes his eyes; on that moment, Jake started to surround himself into a blue aura light: his chi separating from him without much of a sensation in order to craft in his exact image what appeared to be a complete perfect clone of himself.

"Now, you know what you need to do?" The real Jake said to his clone, as he put on a cyan blue bracelet around his doppleganger left wrist, "You gotta help me out with my two girls, a'ight?"

"Alright, who I'm gonna get and what do I do?"

"You'll go with Danika and all you have to do is take her on a movie and entertain her enough after I finish my date with Rose! You got that?"

"OK then...but don't you think we're two timing or something?"

"Aw c'mon, no we ain't!" Jake said frustrated "It's just a date, besides; this could help me decide between Rose and Danika!"

"You sure about this?"

"Positive, trust me! This will be a good tag team plan." and on that moment, Jake's phone rang again, making him just slightly annoyed as he answered it, saying to his copy "Hang on."

As for the person on the other end:

"Sup, it's the AmDrag."

"About time I managed to get you on the phone." It was a familiar voice with a British accent that made Jake's spine chill.

"Nigel?"

"Yes, Mr. Long, it's me."

"Why the heck are you callin' me?"

"Didn't Fu already tell you?"

"Tell me what, exactly?"

"About the Smoke Gryphons, that's why?"

"Wait….you're the informant!?"

"I believe that is what I just told you, yes."

"Oh brother." Jake groaned as he held his forehead, "You are the last person that I wanted as my help!"

"Well I'm sorry if I'm the only one that's able or willing to help you with this situation."

"OK, what do you want?"

"Team up with you, since I have a lead to get the people behind the magic wand smugglings, and it's a good one if I might say so myself."

"Say what now?"

"We've teamed up before, what is the problem now?"

"Well, it's just…" then, something hit Jake. It was a rather strong moment of hesitation, as suddenly he was struggling to think of a proper response to the red-headed wizard. How he was still gonna explain that he had the feeling of Nigel's lips on his? And why he can't think on something else?

"Still here, Long?" Nigel asked, interrupting Jake's thoughts, "I'm waiting for a response, if you don't mind."

"Oh, I-uh, eh, heheh...I guess I have no choice, right? OK, um...so…" Jake replied nervously, "How can I be of your service?"

"That's much better."

"Yeah yeah, just tell me what you need me to do."

"Very well, I got a lead that there is gonna be a Smoke Gryphons reunions on the pier area of the city, and I want you to help me infiltrate it"

"A'ight, I can do that no problem!"

"Yeah, but we have to move on tonight."

"Tonight? You mean, this night?"

"Well, that's what 'tonight' means. Is there a problem with that?"

"Well, um…" Jake then looks at his chi clone, who was tapping his foot rather impatiently - complete with a pouting expression, "I dunno, man."

"Jake, this job is why the American Dragon is here, you're not gonna turn your back on a possible catastrophe, are you?"

"Say wha? O' course not!"

"Well then, what's stopping you?"

Once again, Jake lacked the know-how of what to say as his response. He swallowed just a bit before he finally came to yet another mental solution to his great woe:

"Where can we see each other?" that proved to be the only thing he could say, surprisingly enough, "I'm in."

"I'll send you a message, so stay alert." and Nigel hangs up, letting Jake sigh.

Minutes later, there was another doppleganger in the room as Jake was giving him a pink bracelet.

"So, what am I gonna do?" the Jake clone with the pink bracelet asked to the original one, "You got a plan, right?"

"All right!" Jake finished to put the bracelet, as he was clearly frustrated right now, "I'm gonna say this one last time just once: me with the cyan bracelet is gonna go with Danika at her house so the two can watch a movie while me with the pink bracelet will take a bus to meet up with Rose at Coney Island while I go to the docks with Nigel, any questions?"

Jake with the cyan bracelet raised his hand, with Jake signaling to him to say what his question was.

"Should I do the 'yawn-and-reach' trick?" that got some groans of the other two Jakes.

"Of course you do!" The real Jake replied, "Do it a million times if you need to!"

"Yeah, dude; it's like 'Dating 101'." The Jake with the pink bracelet added as he nudged the other clone's arm, "Come on now!"

"Hey, I'm no stupid, stupid!"

"You're the stupid one, I'm not!"

"Yo, dudes, stop it!" the real Jake yelled out to stop them both in their tracks, "Both of y'all be actin' stupid!"

"He started it!" the two clones pointed at each other in a manner which couldn't help but make their originator groan and rub at his temple - already this was not going the way he had hoped for it to go.

"Aw maaaan, this is gonna take forever." Jake groaned to himself, then he directed to the clones. "All right, mes; listen up!" Jake exclaimed, clapping his hands to ensure he had his copies complete and undivided attention - though he still wasn't sure he actually had that, "Now, I hope all you guys remember what I told you, because we seriously ain't got time for me to be repeating myself!"

"Sorry, Jake."

"Just listen up, alright? This day should be flawless, this could be the deciding day were we finally can get this love triangle mess over and done with before it gets ugly, ya heard?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Alright, now that's what I like to here! Now let's get out there and gave the ladies a date they'll never forget!"

"On it, sir!"

"That's more like it!"

And so, the sun starts to set on the NY skyline; with a taxi cab parking near the entrance of one of the houses of the place, and the Jake with the cyan bracelet steps off and with a smile as he checks himself before he can smoothly walk towards the enter and knocked on the door three times.

From the other side, he received an answer, a simple, common:

"Coming!"

That particularly Jake put upon himself a victorious smile when it was Danika who opened the door, dressed in a lovely dress and decorated with the finest of jewlery that a girl her age would be allowed to wear. Complete with makeup, it was clear she was more than prepared for a lovely night out with what she believed to be 'her man'.

"What up, boo?" Jake asked with his usual 'swagger', "You' ready for your date with the mackdaddy or what? Cuz from where I'm lookin', girl, you fiiiiiiiine for it."

Danika giggles in responds and replies with: "I did try to look my best."

"And you succeeded."

"Oh you!"

"So...ready to go, m'lady?" Jake asked, acting like a gentleman in a rather convincing upper class accent, though still decidedly false, though he did top it off with gesturing for Danika to grab and hold onto his arm with a charming smile plastered on his face. Jake smiled back to Danika as the two continue their conversation.

"Are you sure you wanna go to the movies, Danika?" Jake asked, "Last chance to change your mind~"

"I'm 100% sure." Danika said with conviction, "I just saw a movie that maybe you'll like."

"Oh yeah? Do let me know~"

"It's the latest 'Capella Camp' movie."

"Capella Camp, huh?"

"Remember that you told me that those were some of your favorite movies because of the soundtrack?"

"Huh, oh, oh yeah! I remember now!"

"Heh heh, with that said; Capella Camp 4: The Riff-Off is out, are you in?"

"Oh, I'm in!"

Meanwhile, on another part of the city: Rose was already dressed for the occasion and waiting on a bus stop, checking her watch when Jake with the pink bracelet just managed to make his appearance, the blonde girl went straight towards him and gave him not only a hug, but also placed her lips tightly upon his own - yet again giving him the feeling of something that once upon a time he only would have dreamed of. However, it was a rather short kiss - a perfect one, simply a short burst of a dream that now became reality, before they had to part away and converse with each other - albeit with Jake currently being in a trance like state after such a greeting.

"I missed you too, Rose." Jake replied with a wink, "A lot."

"I bet you do, I missed you and I missed New York...although, you have to admit that Hong Kong has its own charm."

"Eh, yeah I guess it does but it ain't no N.Y.C."

"OK, I'll give you that." Rose replied with a giggle, as she sat herself down next to Jake - smiling at him happily the whole while.

"You know it's always good to see ya again." then Jake tries to do the 'yawn and shoulder hug' maneuver. Rose just smiled, lowering her head for it to be placed comfortably on her Jake's shoulder.

"The bus is gonna come here any second now, anything you like to tell me before it comes?" Jake asked his 'girlfriend':

"Well, this isn't gonna be anything you haven't heard before" she admitted, "But…maybe my family might not be as complete as I thought it was."

"What'cha mean?"

"Well, you remember that dream we saw? I had a twin, and, I haven't found them yet. Not even sure if it's a brother or a sister. I was hoping you would help me find them."

"Wait...you...have a twin? And why you didn't told me any of this stuff before!"

"I thought you already knew."

"I...I did? You told me that before?" Jake was acting confused, "I'm sorry, I think I must've forget or somethin'!"

"Well, you were there, weren't you? I'm sorry, my memories still only came back to me so recently."

"Yeah….I know that a lot of stuff seems confusing to you right now - I mean, it sure does confuse the heck outta me!"

Seeing Rose starting to get a bit stressed, Jake puts a hand on her shoulder and tried his best to think of something worthwhile of saying to her, knowing very well from the look on her face that she needed him now more than ever - or perhaps needed the actual Jake, rather than his doppleganger. Nevertheless, he still was at least 'a' Jake, and was not going to let Rose of all people be alone in such a time of crisis.

"Hey, you don't need to think on it too much." Jake said with a comforting tone. "It won't do you any good."

"You think so?"

"Eeyup, besides; this date will help you relax and let it all flow, you wanted to hang out with me like the good ol' days, right?"

"I, I guess so."

On that moment, the sound of the bus managed to caught the attention of both teenagers as the blue bus starts to stop on the station.

"Welp, ready to get in the clouds with yours truly?" Jake asked, "Cuz I know I'm sure ready!"

"If you wanted to get me in the clouds, you could just spread your wings."

"I could, but not with everyone here watching~"

"Ha, that's very true."

With that, the two teenagers managed to get into the bus that'll take them to Coney Island and after paying their fare, both Jake and Rose sit on a couple of chairs and decided to enjoy the road together, although Jake let a thankfully unnoticed sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, at the docks: the night was beginning to fall and grace the air with cool breezes assisted by the moon rather than by the sun in order to achieve what was perhaps the illusion of a greater coldness than there was. Though Nigel Thrall was not precisely cold enough to see his own breathes, he was irritated enough to tap his foot as he impatiently paced the edge of one dock in particular - ignoring the smell of fish and salt as all that was on his mind was where his soon to be 'partner' was. Wherever it was, it was not there. At least, it didn't appear to be.

"Sorry for the delay." the real Jake arrived on the scene on his skateboard, earning a groan from the British wizard:

"Delay? That's what you call a delay?"

"Hey, I got to take care of some things before I can meet up with you." Jake said as he put his skateboard on a backpack he's carrying "Traffic being horrid didn't helped either."

"You could easily fly off to get here, but it seems like you purposely chose to walk here instead. Just to irritate me, I presume?"

"Come on, am I really THAT bad of a person?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

"Maybe we could figure it out after we take care of those magic wand smugglers, come on!"

"Oh very well" Nigel sighed, "Lead the way."

"Gladly." and Jake went on to get more depth inside the docks area, but as the two get more into the place; Nigel couldn't help but think:

" _I just know this isn't going to exactly as planned."_ but as he kept looking over Jake, he couldn't help but feel a certain degree of attraction, though it was something he did not want to admit. He wanted to write it off as just normal things to feel after what transpired at the parade - though as he looked at Jake from behind he was not so sure.

"Nigel?" Jake asked to Nigel, turning around with a brow raised as he noticed how far and slowly Nigel was actually trailing behind him.

"What, Jake?"

"Just makin' sure you ain't bailin' on me."

"Who do you think I am, Mr. Long?"

"Ha" Jake laughed, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I….n-nevermind, let's get to it."

The two boys kept going on their way, little did they know that one of the new enemies they would have to face was already watching them on the shadows - completely out of both their sight and their knowledge.


	5. Chapter 5

The nights along the New York City piers are usually rather drenched with fog coupled with a feeling of mysterious tension, with, even if the night was as clear as that of crystal. This was true at this night in particular, for while the glimmer of night was present, there was ever an unnerving sensation that things could get weird really fast; and for Jake and Nigel, these was no exception.

The wizard and the dragon were hiding behind very large and empty crates behind one of the warehouses, hoping to not get detected; as some mysterious figures were roaming around in dark green robes, garnished with the golden brooch, symbol of the Smoke Gryphons.

"Yo, Nigel." Jake whispered, "What are we waiting for?"

"Timing" Nigel whispered back in a stern fashion, "Timing, is everything."

"Yeah" Jake rolled his eyes, "Right."

"What?"

"Just sayin', you're kinda wastin' time rather than waitin' for it."

"Well, excuse me for not being the kind of guy who rushes first, asks questions later."

"Hey don't knock on me for gettin' stuff done."

However much the two argued, it was just before Nigel was about to turn around to respond that he stopped himself - having noticed something peculiar. Instead, he opted to sternly 'shush' Jake while pointing to what it was that he saw: in the distance, far removed from where they were yet plainly in the sight courtesy of well placed lighting and the moths attracted to them, was a tall figure rabbed in a dark indigo cloak. While it appeared to be human, with the world of magic one could never be too sure.

With but a few hand gestures and noddings of their heads, the two young males set out on their mission:

"Remember" Nigel reminded Jake as he made sure to keep his position crouching and as quiet as possible, "Stealth."

"Uh, you lookin' at the masta' o' stealth here."

"As long as you don't go rapping, everything will be fine."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Nigel covered Jake's mouth, yet again making sure to rather irritatedly 'shush' him. He knew this annoyed Jake, but did not care. As on this moment, the two soon saw a congregation of cloaked figures.- or at least it was Jake who finally saw them at least.

"There they are." Nigel commented, "The Smoke Gryphons: it's been months since I've managed to cross paths with those thieves."

"The say what?"

"Don't tell me Fu didn't give you the information?"

"Oh, he did."

"But?"

"Not paying attention, weren't you?"

"What?" Jake was offended by the mere mention of the truth, "What you talkin' 'bout, I'm the masta' o' payin' attention!"

"SHHHHH!"

"Hey, just speakin' the truth!"

"You shouldn't be speaking at all right now!"

Jake grunted, but that attracted the attention of a couple of cloaked figures. With their own suspicious sounds they looked upwards at where the two were, only to find nothing. Little did they know that Nigel was covering Jake's mouth, having done so immediately before finding a spot where the two of them would not be so easily seen from a compromised position like that.

"Now, hold still..." Nigel pulled from his pockets a purple bag from his pocket, tied with a golden thread, as he opens the bag and poured just a small amount of silver dust on the palm of his hand. Jake however, just raised a brow as he snarked at whatever it was Nigel was doing:

"Is that how pixie dust looks like?"

"Not really, it's more glittery; this is invisible dust, it's not very effective, but this will get us enough time to know what they're planning to do with the wands."

"So you want to sprinke that stuff on us and make ourselves invisible?"

"Yes. But I'm not sure how effective it will be on account of your, personality." before Jake could even respond, Nigel wasted little time as he blew just a small ammount of the dust on Jake's face. Jake sneezed and coughed rather than spoke, though the dust still took it's proper effect. Soon Jake's entire body - thankfully including his clothes, started to turn completely invisible. At least, to anyone besides himself.

"Nigel, I don't think it's working." Jake commented after he was done coughing. However, when he opened his eyes properly - he saw absolutely no sign of Nigel at all.

"Nigel?...Nigel, where did you go? This ain't funny!"

"Of course you don't, all you have to do is expect a giant foot crushing you to see it's funny."

"Giant say wha?!" Jake tries to move himself frantically, bolting as though he actually believed a foot was about to crush - but instead he merely bumped his forehead with Nigel. Though with an 'oof' he fell to the floor, once he shook his head back into focus he glared. He could hear Nigel's chuckling.

"See?" Nigel commented, "You need to wake up and pay attention."

"Yeah, yeah; let's go to see what's going on."

"Good choice."

However, while the teens are embarking, one of the Jakes was waiting on the bus station: still on the mission that the actual Jake had given him quite some time ago. Jake checks on his watch, hoping that his date come when she spots a familiar blonde girl: Rose.

"Jake, sorry I'm late!" Rose spoke quickly as she arrived on the scene, "It's just that-"

"It's alright, don't need to give me details; I was very patient to have a chance to see you again, and my patience paid off." Jake smiled, interrupting her as he was acting like there was nothing wrong, continuing on to attempt in soothing her best he could, "No reason to say you're sorry either."

"When did you became so gentleman-like?" Rose chuckled, "That's not the Jake I remember."

"Say whaaaaa? Since when?"

"Hehe, It's an improvement."

"Well, if you say so then it must be true~"

Rose kept giggling and continued the conversation: "So, ready to go for our date?"

"You know I am, my queen~"

"Your queen? Jake…"

"What? Is not true?"

"Oh you, you're always good at making me blush!"

That made Jake's smirk extend pridefully as the two were soon greeted by a bus arriving at their station, Jake bowing and gesturing for Rose to go in before him as it parked and open it's doors as if but not actually for the two. The two picked two seats situated on the left side of the bus - sitting right beside each other, holding hands.

Meanwhile, the other copy of Jake Long was now walking with a present box complete with a red ribbon in his hands as he walks by towards a house: the residence of none other than Danika Hunnicut.

"OK, Jake...you got this." Jake said to himself, taking in and out a deep breath, "You got this in the bag! You the mackdaddy! The amdrag! The king o' the world!" Jake just keep coaxing himself as he knocked on the door - leaving the only thing left for him to do being to wait. Jake took deep breaths as he waited for it to be opened, which luckily for him did not take very long at all.

"Jake?" Danika asked, appearing soon enough as she was the one to open the door, smiling once she saw Jake smiling back at her - box in hand.

"Hey Dani~"

"Jake! You made it!" Danika exclaimed ever so happily as she hugged Jake, who smiled warmly right back at her.

"Aw, you I will make it, babe! And if you wanna know why, it's cuz I know ya and you are amazin'~"

"Oh stop it Jake, you're gonna make me faint~"

"If you do, I'll be there to catch you~" Jake said as he presents the box to Danika, which she promptly opened to reveal inside of it was none other than a charm bracelet - though at first it appeared she registered it as normal jewelry rather than anything else.

"Oh Jake, it's beautiful...but it must have cost you a lot." Danika said, complimenting the gift as she placed it on her wrist to get a better look at it while it was in its proper position - her smile ever so large.

"Everything is worth every penny, just for you."

"Aw!" and without a second thought she once more grabbed Jake, pulling him into yet another loving hug on her part. But she didn't paid attention that Jake started to feel a little bit uneasy with the hug, like there was something off. There was something different about Jake, though it was something that at the moment she couldn't quite pinpoint.

"So, are we ready to go?" Danika asked, derailing his train of thought, "We should go before it gets a little _too_ late."

"Oh, sure, o'course!" Jake holds Danika by the arm as the two go on towards the movie theater, although Jake was trying to hide his feeling of unsureness - feelings that outright refused to simply disappear.

Meanwhile, with the actual Jake and Nigel; the two boys were following up close to the hooded thieves as they managed to put all of the stolen goods in one pile, while leaving other piles to things which the two young males did not actually seem to pay attention to

"Ow, watch the foot." Jake argued, in a hushed tone, only for Nigel to reply back sternly:

"Stop making up complaints just to be hostile with me."

"What'cha wanna do? Turn me into a frog?"

"That is an idea."

"Hey."

"Sarcasm?"

"Duh."

"That's supposed to be my line."

"Shaddup."

As they turn around, they see that the hooded figures were leaving them behind, although being none the wiser. This was much to the two's relief, of course.

"Seriously, shut up."

"Same, to you."

The two kept following around, trying to keep up and being as sneaky as possible, until the two managed to arrive at what appeared to be something that was most peculiar to them:

"I think…."

"Think what?"

"I think I can recognize the head honcho, but we need to get closer."

"How are you so sure?"

"Can you trust me for once? We need to pass incognito."

"Fine, I can whip up another spell no problem; I can make us pass like one of them with no problem."

"Well, do it then!"

"I was just about to." Nigel then proceeded to follow through on his word: using a glamour spell, the two boys turned into the same form as the cloaked figures - including the height. However, Jake was still noticeably shorter than Nigel's disguised form.

"Well, how about that." Nigel snarked, as the voice of his glamour form was raspier and nasal, "Even in disguise, you're still a short spicy shrimp."

"Only 'cuz you made me so on purpose!"

"Well, don't get used to it, the form won't last long so you better have a quick plan!"

"I always have a quick plan!" and so, both Jake and Nigel managed to infiltrate the group, while the other cloaked figures where none the wiser.

"My order of thieves." the head cloaked figure started to speak "I want, once again to express my gratitude that our alliance has managed to get through, and I appreciate the loot of magical items that have managed to obtain."

Nigel made sure to keep Jake's mouth shushed for the duration of whatever was about to be spoken. Jake, of course, was not a fan. So he decides to move a little bit closer to the head figure - or at least what they assumed was the leading force behind the group.

"You seemed a little bit familiar, but just to be sure…" Jake thought as he tried to approach the head figure as he kept giving his speech, only for Nigel to grab him firmly by the back of his cloak.

"H-hey!"

"Don't. Move."

"Can you chill? I'm about to see who's behind of all of this."

"Not the time, not the place."

"Why not?"

"You'll ruin our cover!"

"You wanna know who's behind all of this or not?"

"I do, but give. It. Time."

"Ain't nobody got time for that!"

The two kept arguing and tugging against each other, causing some of the cloaked figures start to look at them; without the two of them knowing about the small crowd they were drawing. Eventually, the two managed to take off their clothes; which somehow managed to turn them back to normal.

As one might imagine, this was not part of the plan.

"Bloody hell." Nigel muttered, being the first to realize that the disguise had been compromised.

The main cloaked figure makes a hasty retreat, as well as some of the cloaked figures that took the magical items, but Jake managed to score a couple of fireballs to make sure the wands do not fall on the wrong hands.

"Get the wands, Nigel; I'll deal with the rest."

"On it." Nigel dashes to get the wands, while Jake wraps himself himself with a blue cloud, turning into his serpentine, red dragon form - ever far more imposing than his human form. Of course, as usual this had to be preceded by the shouting of "DRAGON UP!" The dragon was trying to take down the cloaked subjects that were much more close to him, using his tail to sweep them out or using his wings to try to blow them away. Meanwhile, Nigel was ducking and sliding, trying to avoid any contact with the crooks, and try to get the wands, though with their cover blown it was no doubt proving to be an unprecedented challenge.

The cloaked figures immediately grabbed some of their own wands, and went on their way on trying to zap Nigel with a magic blast, hoping to either leave a nasty mark on his rear or turning into something else other than a human, but the shots narrowly missed him.

Jake, for his part, found himself as usual not shutting up:

"And you call me shortie? Man, at this distance; I'm the giant of all of y'all!"

"No, you're not." Nigel snarked, "Dragon forms don't count!"

"Yes they do!"

"Just focus on the enemies while I try to secure the wands!"

"OK OK, got it! Just watch and learn, wizard boy!"

"Trust me…" Nigel then sent a couple of the mooks flying using levitation magic, "...I'm taking notes." - of course, he also sent Jake a rather large dose of sarcasm. So Nigel stayed to going out of his way to secure as much as magic wands as possible, but the cloaked figures were learning from their mistakes and appeared to slowly be gaining and advantage over the two young males fighting them. But before Nigel could try to get overwhelmed, Jake managed to rush into action, flying in a spiral to slam himself directly into the back of an enemy, sending him into a wall directly before slapping another one with his tail.

"I could've flicked them up by myself, you know." Nigel added, only for Jake to fire back with:

"Could've, but didn't! So, you welcome!"

"Whatever, just stay focused!"

"Relax, Crumpet, I'm just heating up~" and Jake launches another rush of fireballs, making the cloak figures set aside as Nigel kept sneaking to where the wands were, using the distraction of Jake as his cover. As Nigel was doing his business however, he looked to his enemies and took notice of the fact they appeared to be retreating alongside their leader: Jake however, was not about to have any of that:

"Oh no, you ain't getting away that easily." Jake boasted as he ran off to follow them, causing Nigel to shout:

"Jake, stop!" Nigel said as he tries to catch up with the figures.

Meanwhile, 'Jake' and Danika were coming out of the movie - completely unaware of the drama unfolding with Nigel and the real Jake.

"Well, what do you think, Jake?" Danika asked "You liked the movie?"

"Eh, it wasn't as good as I thought it were gonna be, but the choreographies are still on point." Jake replied "I might steal one or two moves."

"Oh really now?" Danika chuckled "Can't wait to see you move like that, I hope you can do a backflip too."

"Oh, believe me, I can do a backflip. For you, i'd do a hundred backflips!"

"Of course you'll do."

"Mmmhmm!"

Meanwhile, in another side of the city; Jake and Rose were hanging out on the pier while Rose was eating cotton candy while Jake was carrying some prizes they've won in the games of the park.

"Thanks for showing me such a wonderful time, Jake." Rose said as she looks at her date with a smile, "You have no idea how much I missed spending time with you in the flesh."

"Believe me, same here, my most beautiful woman on the face of the planet."

"Awww, hehe...I didn't remembered you were so considerate."

"Oh come on, I always am~"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, especially when it comes to, my wonderful Rose~" Jake says as he kisses the hand of his fair maiden, "Or should I say, my Cleopatra?"

"You still remember that play? We didn't even kiss back then."

"I, I know….but, I tried to picture it was you!"

"Well, I could make it less 'painful' for you."

"You already have, my fair lady."

As they keep flirting with each other, the two walk around Coney Island as Rose started to talk:

"Jake, there's something you must know that I didn't' tell you before."

"Like what?"

"I found out something...odd about my family."

"Magical kinda odd?"

"No, the normal kind of odd."

"Ah, a'ight! So what is it?"

"Jake...how would you react if you had a twin?"

"Well, let's see: I'll probably feel less lonely, someone who can help me play pranks on Haley, someone that can help me out for a quick escape as he pretends to be me and vice-versa; I'll probably do a lot of things with him."

"OK, that's good...but...how would you react if your twin is really hard to help to behave himself."

"Like you aren't?"

"Hey!"

Rose then had quite the bit of laughter as she playfully pushed Jake softly.

"But, yeah...my sister; I'm really worried about her."

"Rose, relax" Jake then brushed Rose's cheek as he gave her once more an ever warm smile, "I know. I'm gonna help you in any way I can."

"Thank you, Jake; I know I ha-" but before Rose kept talking, Jake's cell phone sounded off, with Jake only groaning before answering it. "Hang on, one sec." and then to the person on the other end, "Kinda busy here, what's up?"

"Yo, how's Rose doing over there." it was the Jake clone going out with Danika, "Does she suspect a thing?"

"Nope. Not one bit; but why the call?"

"Dude, I contact the OG one, he can't respond his cell."

"Didn't respond?"

"Yeah, you know if he didn't forget his cellphone on his house?"

"I sure hope not!"

Meanwhile, with Jake and Nigel; while the two were giving chase to the cloaked figures, unaware that other enemies of theirs had quite the plan on how to get rid of them - and were perched intelligently and dangerously above them. Nigel of course, being the first one to notice that:

"Jake, look out!" Nigel warned, but Jake did not listen at all and he kept giving chase, as the rocks were now falling above them - Jake being hit directly on the back in a matter of moments, with a grunt and gasp he fell to the ground alongside the rock atop of him.

"Jake!" Nigel shouted, having witnessed the dragonic body seeming to fall unconscious. Running to ensure Jake's safety it was only out of the corner of his eye that he saw the cloaked figures they had been after finally retreating for good into the darkness of the caves. Nigel now had to make the decision between finishing the mission, or ensuring Jake's safety.

"I'll never forgive myself for this" Nigel said to himself as he decided to push the rocks off of Jake's body the best that he could, desiring his safety over the mission. Once all of them had been clear, he attempted all that he could to get Jake back into consciousness - at first shaking him, before resorting to slapping him.

"AH! I swear I forgot my pants! I was on a hurry!" Jake said as he woke up, only to see Nigel in front of him instead of his parents or gramps.

"As far as I can see, you still got them." Nigel smirked, "Even though, they did get away."

"My pants got away?"

"No, but the thieves did."

"Then why you didn't go to get them?"

"I had to save you?" Nigel said in a stern tone, "I can't complete this mission without you! And you didn't look in too good of a shape, my friend!"

"You trippin'" Jake said as he tried to stand up, "I'm still as up, ready and hot as ever befo-'" but then Jake's body manages to fail him as he collapses about as quickly as he attempted to move. Nigel's response was a slight groan, rubbing at his temple.

"...maybe I could use some help?" Jake said, admitting his defeat at last.

"Turn back into a human first."

"Fine then." Jake managed to turn back into his human form, with Nigel proceeding to approach him, silently tossing him over his back in order to carry. Though Jake crossed his arms and pouted, Nigel couldn't help but to make but one more comment about this:

"You know, you're rather light, Mr. Long."

"Thanks, I'm on a diet."

"Ha."

The two teenagers were walking out of the piers and tried to get the pier area, with Nigel feeling the pretty light Jake's body on his back, not to mention his warm breath on the back of his neck. Nigel wanted to say something, yet something in the pit of his stomach - or heart - was forcing him to remain silent on the subject.

"Ugh, why are you doing this to me, Jake?" Nigel thought to himself in silence "I'm doing all my best to avoid you and yet….I find myself being unable to."

Nigel thought something more, but just as quickly he shook his head in outright refusal to accept that it was actually coming from his mind.

"Come on, it's gonna be a long way from here to your grandfather's."

Jake groaned in response. Nigel just lightly laughed, shaking his head in a lack of surprise. While he was entertaining the thought of Jake simply being lazy - wouldn't be unusual for him, he still nevertheless ended up carrying him for the entire journey back home. Whether just out of kindness or because of a deeper feeling though, he was unsure.

On Jake's part though, the trouble wasn't getting nearly crushed by a rock so much it was the crushing he could potentially face upon waking up from his so-called lack of consciousness.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: As Jake and Nigel escape and hide for a while; the two boys start to bond more, and maybe Jake thinks that maybe liking Nigel might not be bad after all

The dark, breezing night was finally at its peak hours. The same group of hours that contained the time of midnight, when the light, crater-filled moon was at the center of the canvas that was the sky - ever surrounded by the twinkling stars that formed a blanket of sorts behind it. Needless to say, at a set of hours such as these it rather time for the respective dates to conclude; however, there was one factor that had managed to prolong at least one of these gatherings. As it turned out, one of the dopplegangers was just starting to regain consciousness, his suddenly weak eyes opening to see the beautiful appearance of Rose looking straight onto him, holding his forehead with a concerned look upon her face.

Evidently, something had happened - though what this something was, the doppleganger did not have any recollection of.

"Nghhh, who yelled at my head?" this particular Jake groaned as he was slowly coming back to his sense, with Rose's response being swift:

"Well, we're coming back home after you passed out for some reason."

"I passed out? From what?"

"I don't really know, you were wincing a little, freaking out a bit, and then you just passed out. I can't tell you how shocked I was!"

"Well, whatever it happened….I'm sorry." Jake sighed, "That's all I can say Rose. That I'm sorry. I don't know what else there is to say."

"It's OK, Jake." Rose said as she puts his hand on Jake's "It's not your fault, and trust me you have nothing to feel sorry for, I was just worried about you is all. It just, happened out of nowhere! Was it something magical?"

"Probably…but maybe I was exhausted, you know; big dragon duties the past weeks, hehe."

"I figured."

The bus managed to make its stop on the same bus that the two lovers met, Jake and Rose boarded off and said their goodbyes:

"Well, it was fun to spend an evening like this...like the good 'ol days." Rose said with a smile, asurring herself as well as Jake that all would be well.

"Yeah, it was a blast, can't wait for the second blast. Ya know, the blast that's gonna bigger than anything you can think of!"

Rose chuckled and replies with: "I can't wait too." and Rose says goodbye to Jake with a kiss on the lips, as she waves goodbye and leaves Jake alone with a smile, as she was now out of distance; Jake quickly picked up his cell phone and called his look-alike partner:

"Yo, wassup? Jake here, how you doin'?"

"Fine, the date ended like a charm, although I have a teensy-bit problem-"

"Did you passed out too for no reason?"

"...yea."

"That's weird, how you think our real self's been holdin' up?"

"How the heck am I supposed to know that? Last time I checked, he sent me to the voicemail."

"Dang. He better be alright! If he's not, is somethin' bad gon' happen to us?!"

Meanwhile, Nigel was still carrying Jake's limp body as he walked out in the streets while Jake was just rambling nonsense:

"Hey Nigel, did you heard the song about the Squirrels in your pants, that's my jam...heheheh."

"I really need to set you down to rest as soon as possible" Nigel commented, rolling his eyes albeit with a slight chuckle, "Try to stay with me."

"Yes, captain~"

"Good, very, very good."

Nigel and Jake have managed to turn the block, and managed to arrived to the Canal Street Electronics building - otherwise known as "Gramps' Shop" when it came to persons and creatures of a more magical origin.

"All right, here it is." Nigel said, "Let's see if your grandfather can brew up a healing potion or something."

"Don't, all those potions taste like mulched cod." Jake replied, still deep within an incredibly dazed, delirious state. He was unable to be grateful for Nigel being there to help him get him even this far. Once the two entered, the only one that could receive them at the moment was Fu Dog - who was quite a fair bit concerned upon his canine eyes laying upon the current state of Jake.

"Woah woah." Fu said approaching, "What happened to Jake?"

"He was knocked unconscious on the mission. The culprits got away, but I managed to bring him back here in one piece."

"So, was my hunch right? Or was my hunch right?"

"I believe your hunch is right. What was it, again?"

"The Smoke Gryphons is up to something...and for how Jake is over there, is nothing good."

"Well, you are right about that. On both points." Nigel spoke as he scratched his head, "We tried to put a stop to them, but there were far too many. Quite in fact they seemed to prove too smart for us - considering I had to prioritize making sure Jake wasn't harmed!"

"Right away, I'll prepare a healing potion and you get Jake in bed so he can rest." Fu replied, "And don't worry about the thieves, I'm sure you'll get 'em next time."

Nigel silently nodded in agreement, seeing as how Jake was humming musical numbers. Though, this did much to further annoy the wizard even as he made sure Jake was nicely settled on the nearest couch for resting.

Once Jake was nicely snuggled on the couch, Nigel went the extra mile and actually both found and placed a blanket over Jake's body - before also adding a cooling water bag on top of his head. The fact that Jake didn't necessarily need these things, did not seem to even cross his mind.

"Jake...do you always have to be this problematic?" Nigel said in the form of a quiet whisper, looking at Jake with but a few shakes of his head; but Nigel couldn't help but stay a little bit longer, his eyes seeming to never once leave sight of Jake.

Then again, it also seemed as though his mind was not paying attention to this fact.

"All right, here it is." Fu Dog said, coming with a teacup with the bubbling healing potion, "This will make Jake heal faster...although the taste is definitely not worth the price. Trust me, I know from experience."

"Can't wait to see." Nigel says as he carefully gives the potion to Jake so that his mouth - and then throat, soaked it in, though the American Dragon quite immediately began wincing - due to the aforementioned flavor being far from delicious. In fact, quite the opposite. It almost seemed likely Jake would only vomit the entire thing back up, yet amazingly he did not.

"Dude!" Jake exclaimed, sitting up with his tongue sticking clear and out, his eyes looking down on it in absolute shock, "Who gave me that potion! It tastes like boiling toilet water with dust!"

"Well, what'cha expect, pumpkin juice?" Fu Dog snarked, though Jake only glared at him in response to that - not appreciating the humor.

"N-No! These healing potions always taste bad!"

"But they're effective." Nigel added, crossing his arms, smirking as he held back weak laughter.

"Shut up...what am I doing here, anyway?"

"You were knocked out by a nasty strike to the head. I had to abort the mission and make sure you were brought here safely."

"...you did that for me?"

"Well, yes. I did. I don't know why I did, but I did."

After a short pause of reasoning and introspection, Jake could only muster saying a:

"...huh…"

"Hey, it already happened. So, there."

"All right, I'll leave you two lovebirds alone." Fu Dog leaved the place, leaving a snarky remark, following it up with both bouncing eyebrows and loud laughter.

"Lovebirds?!" - both of them were still rather abrasive and dismissive towards anything implying any sort of relationship between them. That was followed by the moment wherein a rather awkward pause was produced between the two - staring at each other blankly, maintaining their shocked faces while at the same not uttering but a single word.

As Fu Dog was coming back on the counter, the door opened once more - and much to Fu's surprise he was met with both of the other Jakes as they entered the shop, with one of them having his hoodie covering his head while the other was being carried on the other's shoulders. However, Fu was not fool:

"Jake? What are you doin' here, didn't the wizard kid just put you down on the couch a few seconds ago?"

"Yeah, it's kind of a long story."

"How long of a story. Wait, you know what, don't tell me, just go do what you gotta do!" Fu Dog dismissed everything as the two Jake clones managed to went where the original was, and he could see as plainly as the day itself that both Nigel and Jake still remained utterly speechless.

"Um….hi."

Nigel's eyes very quickly turned over to the Jake that he had laid upon the couch, a shadow of suspicion very swiftly taking over:

"Jake…."

"Never mind that, guys...how were the dates?" Jake asked, completely avoiding the coming conflict as Nigel simply pinched his temple and shook his head with a light yet very frustrated groan.

"They were good…" one of the Jakes reported, giving way for the other one to speak up:

"...they didn't suspected a thing." the other Jake said, "Not even when we…"

"When you what?"

"Well….we…."

"Kinda, sorta, passed out. I think."

"Oh…"

"Yeah we ain't got no idea what happened!"

"...but I think I have an idea." Nigel muttered to himself, looking at what he believed to be the real Jake - the one on the couch.

"Hey, it's not my fault that I had to deal with overlapping schedules."

"I'm not judging you. But I am saying this is an incredibly awful idea."

"Screw you!" the three Jakes said at the same time, Nigel only continuing to shake his head at Jake's impulsive choice.

"All right, at least you two managed to get a job well done." Jake smirked as his clones, and the three high-fived, as the clones turn into a chi smoke and Jake absorbed them again - finally becoming a single, whole Jake once more. Nigel of course, figured already that this would not be the last he would hear of whatever problem Jake was brewing these dopplegangers.

"Do you really always have to rely on your magic to solve your problems?" Nigel asked, with a hint of disbelief

"It's not always like that, Nigel." Jake replied, to which Nigel huffed:

"Is that so? Then I challenge you to name one time."

Jake tried to respond, though could only get so far as to open his mouth - none of the words he thought of saying managed to sound correct once he actually thought about them.

"I rest my case."

"Oh what do you know? You ain't ever had to be the American Dragon!" Jake said turning around, folding his arms

"I bet it's a lot of work."

"You have no freakin' idea, wizard boy."

"And I bet you have no idea what it is like to do what I have to do either."

All of the sudden, Jake managed to get a bit of curiosity; he just managed to bump into Nigel a couple of occasions, for better or for worse and he didn't even thought what his life could be like. So he softly turned to see Nigel and asked:

"Can you….can you tell me what it is like then?"

"What it's like to be a wizard? Don't you go around like flying on a broom and chase around a golden ba-"

"No. No I don't." Nigel said that in a blunt tone, "You have any idea on how many hours of studying and training takes to perform a spell without screwing up the diction, the wand movement or the materials of said wand?"

"To be honest…...nope."

"Of course not, you have to be very smart to try to do that at the same time...of course not counting potion brewing and divination."

"Is it really that hard to learn magic?"

"YOU HAVE NO IDEA!" Nigel shouted feeling frustrated just by the mere memory of it, grabbing at his forehead, "You simply have no comprehension of what it's like to have quite literally almost a million things you have to both memorize and do in the most perfect of ways. All you have to do is one thing wrong, and you mess everything up!"

"...huh…." that made Jake think, though surprisingly not about what most people would think he would be thinking about. "Nigel….can I ask you how your family is like?"

"My family? You want to know about my family?"

Jake nodded, with the most sincere feeling of understanding - something which Nigel seemed to need a double take just to take in.

"Where do I start?"

"Anywhere but the literal start."

Nigel chuckled at that remark as he shook his head; but he decided to tell his story:

"I….come from a very prestigious family of stage illusionists, I bet you have never heard of the Terrific Thralls, have you?"

"Not at all."

"Of course you won't, they are BIG in the UK; is one of the biggest family of illusionists of the world, but it's more than obvious that their tricks are not sleight of hand...it's real magic."

"Yeah I kinda figured that'd it be real magic, yo."

"Of course…"

"Anyway, go on? If ya got more."

"Well, when I was born, my family was expecting a lot from me, trying to carry on the tradition of the Thralls of being at the top...but...but it was just so very difficult."

"How so?"

"Do you have any idea what kind of pressure does to you? Every day, every night; you have to make sure the spell is perfect when you execute it, I'm lucky if that at least I have a break day, but it's not enough, and that's not counting what they tell me if I don't do it well."

"Okay, this is scaring me, because we're more alike than I thought we were."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, being the AmDrag is not all glitz and glamour, ya see: ever since I found out about what I can do, it's been constant training, constant scolding from Gramps, and I have the faith of an entire magical community on my shoulders. Granted, it did mellowed down a little, but it still can be a pain my tail!"

"I, I see…" Nigel understood Jake's plight, as much as he was also surprised at the similarities between their situations, so much so that Nigel puts a hand on Jake's shoulder

"I guess we should've tried to meet each other better, right?" Nigel said as he put up his hand

"That's, very true." Jake smirked, "Maybe after all of this you care for some tea and crumpets?"

"Oh shut up…..but yes."

"Hahaha, that's a date! Ah-I mean...like friends! Dude friends!"

"Yes, like friends. As you say." Nigel said as he softly removes his hand over Jake's shoulder, that's the moment where the awkward silence returned. The same awkward silence from many times before at this point. But this time, Jake and Nigel didn't seemed to felt uncomfortable, in fact, both of them were actually feeling better with the other's silent company.

Comfortable enough to actually smile at each other.

"You know…" Jake said, breaking the ice "...maybe you are not such a stuck-up idiot after all."

"A stuck-up say what now?"

"Nevermind...I...thanks, Nigel."

"Well, you're welcome...Jake."

At that moment, in the midst of quiet casual talk, Nigel checked his watch, his eyes widening upon seeing just how late in the night that it was getting:

"I must leave, it's getting late. I do hope you take care of yourself."

"Will do."

"I know."

And with that, Nigel decided to up and leave Canal Street Electronics and left to the streets, all the while Jake just decided to rest as he puts his hands on the back of his head and started to think alone to himself about all the various things racing through his vast and complicated yet young mind:

"Wow, who knew that Nigel was more complex than I thought….to think that he and I are pretty much similar, much more than I thought we were….maybe he's not so bad after all." Jake was slowly kicking off his shoes off as he began to imagine he and Nigel actually trying to hang out

It was difficult to imagine at first, yet somehow he actually managed to do it, at first seems like usual normal stuff: going to the arcade, rolling around the skate park, actually having a rather decent conversation for a change.

Although the last imagined scenario is Jake rolling on a hill on the park, as he ends up at top of Nigel….and the two chuckling; but then something happened, Jake didn't seemed to mind the last imagined scenario, he didn't even seem to react with disgust.

The thing was though, he had no idea why on earth he was having thoughts like these - even considerations like these were very much unlike him.

Meanwhile, Nigel was walking through the now chilled streets of New York, seemingly not getting the image of the Asian-American boy out of his head, he still could feel the warmth of his body upon his back - as though it were all still with him.

"Is it even possible?" Nigel asked as he looked up into the sky "Is it even possible that I've fallen in love with Jake?"

He could hardly believe such words had ever found their way out of his thoughts. He wanted to slap himself, yet he knew now that he had to face the truth; but they were many questions circling around his head, like:

"Why is he doing this to me? Is he doing this on purpose? Am I doing this on purpose? Why can't he leave my mind and heart alone?" Nigel shook up his head as he kept getting himself lost in the crowd, he doesn't know what was going to happen to his heart - or what was happening to it depending on the way he looked at things.


	7. Chapter 7

It's been three days since the last time Jake and Nigel had last spoken to one another, and it would be needless to say that the two were surprised that they actually had managed to raise their relationship from casual 'rivalry' to something actually akin to a soft friendship. It was also surprising for the two of them that Jake managed found some extra time within his rather busy schedule as a hero in order to spend some of this time at Nigel's apartment whenever he was done in the skating park - and his duties as American Dragon - which in turn meant that he could get into learning at least a bit of the "cool magic stuff" that the wizard had been talking about; and one night, the dragon managed to introduce his new friend to his family, the dinner managed to go smoothly...at least as far as "inviting friends to come over to dinner" nights go; the only problem was that Jonathan Long: his father never stopped asking questions about Nigel's magic, but Jake let it slide since he's taking his sweet time to understand how the magic world works after their trip to Hong Kong.

It should also be stated that both were relieved that neither of their parents seemed to remember the 'kiss' incident between the two. Or at the very least, they did not bring it up.

As for Rose and Danika, the two girls whom Jake could never forget about, he managed to find a way to date both girls one occasion at the time, so that there was no suspicion. At least not any more than there had to be. Deep inside of both his heart and brain however, Jake knew that he wouldn't be able to keep the charade up for much if not any longer, but he had to find a right way to spill everything and explain himself, so the imminent breakup disaster would at be least softer...for the time being. He also hoped that he would be able to at least eventually be able to select one of the girls above the other, and so preferably would be able to delay the inevitable for until that can be accomplished, and only harm one of them. However, he had yet to actually find himself able to select one person over another.

Overall, things were pretty much hectic, but nothing that the American Dragon couldn't handle...until one day. The day that everything went wrong.

It all started when Jake and Rose were going around at the mall for a little date; at first things seemed innocent enough: Rose had a couple of bags from a clothes store she and Jake went, while the two were going to the down level in the electric escalator.

"Thanks for coming with me, Jake." Rose thanked her 'boyfriend', "I really missed going out to this mall, I had practically forgotten what it was like. Pretty sure most of the places are different from when I used to live here, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty much, but don't sweat it, the only thing matters around here is you anyways~"

"Awwww, and you're still very sweet as I remembered~" Rose once more kissed her Jake on the cheek, which a few years ago would have made Jake perhaps die of a heart attack - albeit, due to sheer happiness.

"So, you're in the mood for an ice cream? I know I am." Rose continued, to which Jake answered:

"I'm in the mood for you, and for right now that means sign me up for some ice cream too!"

"OK then, let's go!"

With that having been said, the ice cream shop was the next stop for the two lovebirds, the boy and his childhood crush and mortal enemy turned girlfriend if not 'bestest' friend of all. Luckily for them, once they reached their destination via walk of only a few minutes, they saw they would not be waiting very long at all for their delicious dairy treat.

"This is gonna take a while." Jake muttered to her, "You think you can pick a table while I pay the cones?"

"Sure" Rose nodded and found herself and Jake a table easily enough though it was just as she took for herself a seat situated near to the window of the establishment, that she noticed from the corner of her eye a girl of fair yet lightly tanned skin, and long, flowing brunette hair. It was also a girl who was unmistakable, one whom she recognized from when she herself was a student. It was Danika Hunnicut, albeit and thankfully having not seen Rose for herself at the moment. At first, the blonde did not think much of Danika, assuming her to simply be a familiar face that happened to be passing by.

"Rose!" Jake called, grabbing her attention just before it could have stayed on Danika for a bit too long, "What kind of flavor you like?"

"Blueberry Cheesecake."

"Mmm, sounds de-lish!"

Rose chuckled a bit:  
"Oh Jake…"

"Oh me what?" Jake smirked as he went on into the counter to see what flavor pick to himself, but then Jake felt that someone was watching him - someone that was on his list of the last people he wanted to see in this particular situation; but before he turned around, that someone seemed to have walked away. All he could do was raise an eyebrow, and shrugged as he turned his attention back to Rose.

After a surprisingly short wait, entailing mostly of Jake enjoying the sight of Rose in the lighting of the room, the two were enjoying both their ice cream and small talk; Rose enjoying Blueberry Cheesecake while Jake settled with a Rocky Road flavored con  
e. Rose meanwhile was telling Jake stores from during her stay in Hong Kong:

"So there's this guy on my class named Junjie who's pretty much like you."

"Like me? How like me?"

"Relax Jake, it's nothing like that." Rose laughed, "He just has your same hobbies: he likes skateboarding and he loves urban music. Though his is, of course, Chinese, and not really in English; and also...he's not a dragon, so rest assured, you're the only dragon for me."

"Heh, ya got that right, boo!" - and like that, Jake's ego was restored. As Rose and Jake enjoyed their ice cream, Jake gave a quick check on his cell phone; only to see something that surprised him, the name on one of the missed calls was something that was the least of his expectations: Danika.

"Um, girl, can you excuse me a moment?" Jake asked, smiling sheepishly as he turned away from Rose, covering one side of his face in the hopes she would not hear the following phone conversation as he used his phone to call Danika back, making up for the missed call:

"Jake?"

"'Sup, Dani?"

"Jake, what's wrong with you; I called you like twice and you didn't answer, I'm glad you didn't miss the call a third time, because I-"

"OK OK, sorry...what's wrong, sweetie?"

"What's wrong? I asked what's wrong with you!"  
"OK, I'm sorry, I got distracted, you know how long it takes time to fix my hair to perfection."

"Your hair? Seriously?"

"...yes."

"Ugh, anyway; I'm at the mall right now, so feel free to hit me up at Darcy's."

"Darcy's?"

"It's a store, Jake."

"Oh, yeah yeah; I-I'll catch you up in 10 minutes, can I have that?"

"OK...but 10 minutes sharp, I'm stuck in a big decision here."

"How big of a decision?"

"Just...just hope you come soon."

"Don't worry bae, I will!" Jake hangs up, only to remember that he still had this date with Rose, who had her arms folded, one brow raised, as her face was clearly sending suspicion down upon Jake - suspicion which only made him worry even more about the very possibly in the near future.

"Think fast, Jake." Jake thought "You need to find an excuse, you don't want to lose her again, do you?" With a mental equivalent of a finger snapping, Jake spoke to Rose once more with words he hoped would fix his growing problem with her:

"I almost forgot that I have to buy something nice for Mom's birthday, be right back!" Jake wanted to rush to Darcy's, so he devoured his ice cream on one bite; but he ended up regretting his decision.

"Ow, ow, brain freeze, brain freeze!" Jake exclaimed as he began writhing in his seat, wincing and holding his head as though he was in very genuine pain. Rose's stance changed as well, her eyes widening as she became incredibly concerned for Jake's apparent predicament:

"Jake, are you alright?"

"No, I ain't! I got a brain freeze!"  
"Jake, why do you have to eat it all in one bite, don't you know that's what doing that does?"

"I...I'll be fine." Jake said that as he tried to stand up by himself, "I need to go to heat my head up; stay here, be right back." Jake ran off to the bathroom, presumably. Unbeknownst to Rose, however, this was far from the truth. In reality, Jake managed to arrives at Darcy's where Danika was waiting for her in the entrance, tapping her foot just as she finally overheard and then saw Jake rush towards her, stopping his feet as he arrived just at her side - though he had to take some moments to recapture his breath.

Once at Darcy's…

"I'm so sorry, I'm really stressed right now!" Danika exclaimed to Jake, who finally caught his breathe in time to remark:

"Then let me relieve some of that stress, Dani!" Jake exhaled and took a deep breath, "I'm here for ya!"

"OK, let's go inside." Danika said as she took Jake by the hand, trying to smile considering that at the very least, he was there; Once inside...

"I need you to tell me the truth…" Danika said with a very serious tone before she showcased a couple of white dresses that are almost identical since some of the blue details are in different color tones.

"Which one do you think will make look more slim?"

"Oh, it's that kinda problem…"

"Excuse me?"

"Don't they like...kind of look the same?"

"What are you talking about? They don't! Can't you tell, this one is clearly different from this one!"

"Y-yeah...but…"

"But what?"

"Nevermind…...why don't you try them on and I'll see which one slims you better?"

"I...I guess that can work."

"Alrighty then!"

Danika went to the changing room to put up the first dress, leaving Jake to - albeit nervously - wait for her just outside of the door. Within his mind, however, Jake's mind was in absolute chaos - practically warring against itself as both Rose and Danika were persistently inside of it. The American Dragon could hardly take it:

"Ok…" Jake thought to himself "Keep it together, Jake! This is nothin'! You got this in the bag! Just get this over with soon and you can get back to Rose!"

But a few moments into Jake's internal mayhem, Danika came back with the first dress placed upon her body. With a twirl of her body as she gained Jake's attention she said to him curiously:

"How do I look?"

"Well, it looks nice on you and the colors suits you."

"And is it slimming?"

"Well...yeah, but I have to check the other dress too to see which one suits you better….if you don't mind, ya know."

"Fair enough." Danika went back to the dressing room to put up the second dress, however it was at that moment which Jake received a text message from Rose:

Where are you?

Jake almost froze with fear, eyes widening at the sight. Quickly however, his brain made sure his hands got to typing a response before Rose could get suspicious of his actual whereabouts.

I'm in the gift shop, still thinking on what to give Mom

Can I help you pick?

No, I'll be back with ya soon, don't worry!

"Okay, I'm ready!" - Danika soon called, just as Jake looked up from his phone to see her Danika's second option dress was virtually the same, but he noticed the blue stripes of the white dress look of a darker shade of blue. Jake smiled, even giving her a thumbs up just to drive home that he felt she looked perfectly fine.

"Well, what do you think?"

"What do I think? I think definitely ten out of ten. That shade of blue really makes you slim."

"You think so?" Danika asked as she twirls on the dress

"Definitely! That one suits you better!"

"Are you really sure? Because I don't know."

"What's wrong with it?"

"Maybe highlights my waist too much."

"Nah, girl, I don't see it."

"I don't know…" Danika said as she looks at herself in the mirror, "Are you really absolutely sure?"

But before Jake could respond, he received a phone call, and the calm mood was ruined, replaced yet again with fear when he saw the Caller ID: Rose. Gulping, Jake answered the phone in a quieted, sheepish tone of voice:

"Hey."

"Jake, where are you?"

"Huh, what do you mean?"

"I'm outside on the gift shop and I don't see you."

"Oh, that….yeah, you see, I left to go back to where you were, but you weren't there! Funniest thing, right?"

"Jake….what are hiding from me?"

"Hiding? Wha? Girl, I'm not hiding nothing! In fact, I'm going right there where you are."

"Do you even know where I am?"

"I think so! You back at the table we were at, right?"

"Well, no I'm on another part of the mall-"

"Great! I'll find you, don't move." Jake hung up, interrupting Rose and he ran off from Darcy's as fast as lightning - practically flying without even using any of his dragon parts. He was unaware however, that had he let Rose finish speaking he would have learned that she actually was closer to the part of the mall that he and Danika had been - in fact, the two ran into each other just as Danika walked out of the store with a bag of purchases in-hand. Jake's only solace for this happening was that neither of the two were enemies upon first laying eyes onto each other. At least, at first.

In fact, Rose was the one who first took notice of Danika - recognizing her from when she still attended the school.

"Hey." Rose called Danika, "Danika?"

"Huh?" turning around, Danika seemed pleasantly surprised to see the blonde girl now standing before her eyes, recognizing her also from the time at middle school, "Rose? You're back?"

"On vacation, I'm not staying…..swim team captain, right?"

"At high school now, too."

"That's nice."

"And how's Hong Kong been?"

"Oh, it's been wonderful."

"I bet, how about we talk about it somewhere else, I'm craving a frappuccino."

"Sure, sounds good to me. I could honestly use someone to spend some time with right now."

"What happened?" Danika asked as both of them were walking beside one another, Rose in response let out a bit of a huff as her tone shifted to one of notable annoyances, her explanatory words being:

"Let's just say my date is not going well." Rose bemoaned a little

"Oh? You're on a date? That's funny, because so am I!" Danika replied, feeling a little bit more happy than Rose

"That's...cool...who is it?"

"Well, my boyfriend."

"You have a boyfriend?"

"Yes, and...not to brag, but he's the best boyfriend a girl could ask for."

"Ooooh...that's nice, well; what's his name?"

"Ja-"

At that moment, a large and booming crash was heard throughout their area of the mall; as though dropped a huge glass from the ceiling. Danika and Rose both gasped and crouched down at lightning speed, covering their heads to avoid what could very easily have been physical damage done onto them - thankfully, they were not cut by any falling shards of glass. On that moment, by an act of coincidence, Jake was passing by - and upon seeing the two of them he let out an absolutely shocked gasp. The first thing he did upon seeing them as they returned to standing up was trying to act cool, and act like the meeting was coincidental.

"Heeey!" - complete with a sheepish smile, and a reluctance to initially address them by their names; "How-how are you doin'?"

"I think something must have fell and broke" Rose commented, before turning to Jake and becoming a bit more annoyed, "Jake, where were you?"

"I was trying to find you, and here we are." Jake went on, to try to introduce Danika to Rose "Rose, this is Danika, a friend."

However, Danika wasn't having any of it:

"A 'friend'? Jake, you'd better add 'girl' to the start of that!"

"What'cha talkin 'bout?"

"Excuse me? You should know!"

"Jake" Rose interrupted, much to Jake's increasing horror, "What is she talking about?"

"I...uhhh…." for once Jake was lost for words, he knew that there was no way he would smooth talk his way out of things. All he could think of inside of his mind was his well known 'catchphrase', awwwwwww man. However, remaining silent was not an option for him. He knew he had to think up a response, and fast: "Okay okay, I know it looks odd; but there's a logical explanation behind all of this." Jake tried to explain himself, hoping that the two increasingly angered women would at least let him do that.

"Oh yeah…"

"...then explain yourself."

"I will, don't worry!" Jake assured them, smiling ever sheepishly, "You see, it goes a little somethin' like this…" - it didn't take very long for Jake to choke up, realizing there really was nothing that he could say which would actually make his situation any better or even close to where he wanted it to be. But he had to be brave and confess: "You see, Rose, after you left for Hong Kong, I met Danika here, and, well, we hit it off. But then, well, me and you hooked up too...and...well…"

"You forgot to tell me." Rose said, crossing her arms,

"The kiss put me in blank, what can I do?"

"Kiss?" Danika remarked, before exclaiming, "You kissed her?! While going out with me?!"

"Yeah... I did." Jake rubbed the back of his head, defeated in his tone; "but I didn't think about that when she kissed me, in fact; I completely forgot about it!"

"Oh, that's great, that's JUST GREAT!" Danika groan, frustrated, pinching the space between her eyes in her sheer anger and frustration. To make things worse for Jake, Rose was not any less angrier.

"Well...anything else you can explain for yourself?" Rose asked, "Because frankly, I'm beginning to have my own explanation for what's going on. And no, it's not good for you."  
"Can you at least let me explain." Jake said, trying to calm down the anger of the blonde girl, but failing.

"Get on with it, Jake."

"OK, I tried to tell you girls that I got tangled up in a double relationship; I wanted to clear this up so I can choose one of you, but...it was very hard for me, you know. When I realized it, I just couldn't find a way to fix this, one way or another I was gonna break someone's heart."

"So you thought it was better to keep dating the two of us without the other knowing?" Rose said, grabbing her forehead

"...in my defense, I was scared as hell!"

"Jake, I know that you can be foolish, but I always thought it was on the charming way, not in the jackass way!" Danika shook her head, "This, this is WELL into the jackass way!"

Jake was more than speechless after hearing that last statement, gulping to himself and soon being at a loss for words. For once, there was nothing that he could think to say which he was sure about making his situation better - it did not help him either that Danika and Rose were both setting him on fire with their eyes, metaphorically speaking. For the American Dragon, he had no choice, but to accept defeat.

"I'm sorry…" Jake sighed, it was all he could muster up from his heart to say.

"You're sorry?...you're sorry!?" Danika said, frustrated, "Do you have any idea on how many dates I've thought they'll be my perfect match, only to find out that they were jerks, idiots, cheaters, or a weird mix of one of the previous!? I thought you were gonna be different, Jake...I was so wrong."

"Danika-"

"No...I don't wanna hear a word from you, not now...not ever!" Danika proceeded to shake her head as she then stormed away, doing away with Jake in her life and also leaving Jake now with only Rose to keep him company. At least, for the time being.

"Rose...I just don't know what to say." Jake said, directing to the blonde girl,though she held out a hand to stop him from approaching her. With hesitation and pain in her own voice, she spoke to him in a very similar set of emotions that Danika had:

"I do." Rose managed to get something out from but one of her pockets, and Jake soon saw it as a picture of them at the Fall Dance. Rose, with all her spite, rip it in half and threw it to Jake, all while neither blinking nor breaking her eyes away from looking at him, "You can keep it."that was the final words that Rose said to him before walking away. Not once did she look back towards him.

Jake was shocked, his legs trembling until he could no longer stand upon them and instead dropped to his knees and picked up the pieces of the photo. His eyes teared up for the first time in what had been months, his brain unable to comprehend what had just happened.

His worst nightmare, had just come true.

"Why me?" Jake whispered, covering his face with the floor as the tears soon became out of his ability to control; at this point he wanted to disappear, he wanted to just spring his dragon wings and fly as far as possible - far enough by far to be alone. Even as his cell phone rang, he didn't care about whoever it was enough to answer the call.

He didn't even know where he was flying to, all he knew is that once there he would be alone.


End file.
